The forthcoming Party Elections in the People’s Republic of China seem to be posing more and more questions to the world’s leading investors about the economic future of the country as well as the possible future political scenario. And although the outcome seems to be obvious to many, the pre-electoral debate suggests that there may be a few possible unexpected changes awaiting the Communist state. The question is, how dramatic will they be?

It took China almost 20 years to gain admission to the WTO. When it joined in December 2001, many people hoped that this would significantly undermine the power of the Communist state, and Bill Clinton even suggested that China admission could have “a profound impact on human rights and political liberty”. Having quit GATT (The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-WTO’s predecessor), shortly after the communist revolution of 1949, China had to wait for 15 years before reapplying in the early 1980s. The price paid for re-entry was certainly high; the state has to cut almost 7000 tariffs, quotas and various trade barriers, but in the end of the day, their sacrifices seem to have paid off. China’s economy evolved faster than anyone hoped. At first many feared that such step-up would lead to severe foreign competition, uprooting farmers and destroying many industries. However in just under 10 years after entering the International market, it became the world’s leading economy with its’ dollar GDP quadrupling and exports quintupling.