China Will Set Its Own Course

The Communist Party of China will continue to follow its own path of reform and development, instead of copying models from other countries, a senior Party think tank said on Wednesday.

Chen Yangyong, director of the first compilation and research department under the Party Literature Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, said the Party will uphold China’s path -- a tailored way of economic development and institutional reform that fits China best -- rather than blindly copying development methods from other countries that may not suit local conditions.

The office is the research institute of the CPC Central Committee. It does research on historical and contemporary documents of the Party, the State and the military force, and explores the life stories of the leaders as well as compiling their writings.

Chen said academics are still divided over whether China’s development experience should be distilled into a term of China’s path, but he believes that a suitable path is the lifeline of a Party, and the gist of China’s path is to follow one’s own way.

Discussion on whether China’s experience of development should be summarized into a term like “China’s path” or “China’s model” has been going on for years.

Zhang Hongzhi, the office’s deputy director, said the word "model" indicates a shaped and universal state that makes people feel as if experience can be applied in different situations, while the word “path” suggests the development method is made on the basis on China’s particular situation and cannot reference other countries.

He said members of the CPC always believe that a country should independently look for the way of development according to its own situation, and experiences from other countries can be used for reference but not blindly copied.

The remarks were made at a news briefing on Wednesday, as the Party is expected to have a new leadership lineup at the upcoming National Congress of the CPC.

Five senior researchers from the office, including Chen, came to the press briefing and explained how the Party’s theories on China’s path have developed in the past decade.