As the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is slated to meet later this year, the Oriental Outlook, a weekly news magazine by Xinhua News Agency, has published China in Ten Years, a report recording the major achievements and setbacks in the past decade. The editor's note emphasized China needs to reform its economic growth model after witnessing 10 years of rapid growth. The highlights of the report follow.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis that started in Guangzhou in late 2002 became a daunting test for China's new leadership. On April 2002, Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong and China's health minister Zhang Wenkang were dismissed because of the fallout from the epidemic. This helped the CPC adhere to the "People First" ruling philosophy in the following years.

It's without doubt China has made big strides in a broad range of fields. In 2003, China succeeded in sending its first manned spacecraft into orbit, making it only the third country ever to send a human into space. Then in 2012, China's Shenzhou-IX capsule, carrying the nation's first female astronaut, docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab.

In May 2004, Joshua Cooper Ramo, a former senior editor and foreign editor of Time magazine, suggested in The Beijing Consensus that China has found a development model suitable to its own conditions. Although it generated heated discussions in the news media and among academics, China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao responded during a news conference for the National People's Congress in 2011 that China is still trying to find a suitable way for its reform and development and the country never thinks of its development as a model.

The year 2005 marked a milestone in the development of China's Internet. Ordinary people found an easy way to rise to fame. The video A Murder Case Caused by a Bun, a spoof on director Chen Kaige's The Promise, became well known among Internet users. Chinese actress-turned-director Xu Jinglei became the world's most widely read blogger. But four years later in 2009, Twitter-like Chinese micro-blogging sites overshadowed the blog. But it was in 2007 the Internet became a powerful medium deeply shaping Chinese society. By June 2008, China's population of Internet users rose to 253 million, passing the United States to become the world's largest. On June 20, 2008, President Hu Jintao held an online chat with Internet users at the People's Daily Online. Then on February 28, 2009, Premier Wen received an online interview with Gov.cn, the official web portal of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. The Internet has become an essential platform for the Chinese people to voice their concerns and participate in politics. The protests against a controversial chemical project in South China's Xiamen and a couple's persistent fight against forced relocation in Southwest China's Chongqing in 2007 highlighted the increasing disputes surrounding commercial interests, power, environmental protection, and civil rights amid China’s massive urbanization.

The Weng'an riot on June 28, 2008 shocked the nation. It was partly caused by the local authority’s use of "rude and roughshod solutions" to address a number of issues according to Guizhou Party chief Shi Zongyuan. The year saw a series of important events, such as the Beijing Olympic Games, the March 14 riot in Lhasa, and the deadly Wenchuan earthquake. Premier Wen's words that "A country will emerge stronger from adversities" summarize the complicated situation in 2008.

It was encouraging the CPC kept upgrading its development policy in terms of the changing environment. On July 1, 2009, Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made a keynote speech at a grand gathering marking the 90th founding anniversary of the CPC, urging members to be aware of the “four dangers” and “four tests.”

A look at the proposals submitted to the two sessions - the National People's Congress (NPC), and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference - will find people more concerned about the distribution of social wealth. While delivering the Government Work Report in March 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao pointed out "everything we do, we do to ensure that the people live a happier life with more dignity and to make our society fairer and more harmonious". Later the term "sense of happiness" also entered into the official discourse to echo people's aspiration for social justice and civil rights.

In 2011, the Chinese Government took a significant step towards greater openness by requiring central agencies to disclose their budgets for international travel, entertainment and vehicle purchases and maintenance.

But in the year of 2012, China found itself in a changing international environment. Does China still have a peaceful international environment for its domestic development? The border disputes in the South China Sea and Diaoyu Islands appeared. The deadly flood in Beijing, just like the Wenzhou railway crash in 2011, show China still faces many challenges after 10 years’ growth.