Abstract

The People's Republic of China recorded a GDP growth rate higher than 8 percent in the past twenty years, which made it the world's seventh largest economy. According to the World Bank, it could surpass America by 2020. The Chinese miracle is the result of an export-oriented development model, partly borrowed from other Asian countries and by now known as free-market socialism. The open-door policy promoted a sharp increase in business flows: the incidence of China on world trade rose from 0.8 percent in 1978 to 4.5 percent in 2002. China today is the primary destination of foreign direct investments. Several issues are still open and should be solved by the new political leadership that emerged from the 16th Congress of the CCP (November 2002), in order for China to continue, in the next few years, on the way to economic development.