Party place

Top: Justas Pankauskas, vice-chair of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.   Above: Karl Duffek, member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria.

A large proportion of State-run monopolies were sold off during the late 1990s and early 2000s to private investors. Other sectors such as banking were dramatically reformed. By 2005, the domestic private sector contributed more than 50 percent of GDP for the first time ever.

"The main reason that China's economy has been developing at such a high speed is that in the 1970s and later, the CPC and the government agreed on the need for small and big private business. The CPC understood that without private business, there would be no economic growth," says Justas Pankauskas, vice-chair of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party.

Adds Karl Duffek, member of Social Democratic Party of Austria and director of Austrian Renner-Institute: "The most important change engineered by the CPC is the change of economic system; there is a huge difference between the economy was managed decades ago and it is managed today. This is part of the huge success of the country.

"There is the growing awareness of problems that go head in head with this process. For example, the environmental problems and also the social problems are connected with the move of many, many people from the countryside into the towns and the growth of the towns. There is the awareness and the willingness to tackle these problems. This is the most impressive change that I encountered."

It is clear the CPC is forging ahead with its own ideas, as it has throughout its 90-year history. "You must remember that all reform in China is basically within the Party," says McGregor. "It is a pipedream (to think of) to transplant Western models onto China."

Kent Deng at the LSE agrees. "For some time now we have seen a convergent trend politically, economically and ideologically to the rest of the world. Ending China's ideological isolation is a major factor that has driven this change."

With a new leadership set to assume control of the Party next year, there is little doubt that the CPC will continue to evolve as China itself changes - both domestically and within the global community.

Meng Jing in Beijing contributed to this story.