China to be stabilizing power in new era

With many Western countries' incomes stagnating and living standards falling 10 years after the global financial crisis, China is determined to prove its essential legacy will be one of shared growth

As with others who witnessed the birth of China's new era - in my case right in the Great Hall of the People - there was a sense of experiencing history in the making.

Communist Party of China Central Committee General Secretary Xi Jinping, in his three-and-a-half-hour-long speech to the 19th National Congress of the CPC, did not just set out a new domestic agenda but also provided a timetable for China to play a more central role on the world stage right until the middle of the century.