An article published in The Economist a couple of months ago said that democracy is going through a difficult time and has experienced many setbacks since 2000. That Western-style democracy is not a panacea for all the political, social and economic ills can be seen in the findings of a 2013 Pew Research Center survey which shows that about 85 percent Chinese people are very happy with China's development direction while only 31 percent Americans are satisfied with the US' .

China has made remarkable progress in democratic politics after the launch of reform and opening-up, especially after the 1990s, which saw a dramatic rise in its economic and strategic strength. Socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics includes the people's congress system, multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the Party's leadership, and the regional ethnic autonomy and democratic grassroots self-government systems.

To build socialist democracy, China has always combined the Marxist theory of democracy with the realities of the country, borrowed from the useful achievements of successful political systems, and assimilated the democratic elements of the country's traditional culture and institutional civilization. As a result, China's socialist democracy shows distinctive Chinese characteristics.

China's democracy is a people's democracy under the leadership of the CPC; a democracy in which the people are the masters of State affairs; a democracy with democratic centralism as the basic organizational principle and mode of operation.

The overall goal of deepening reforms is to improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and modernize national governance. The Third Plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee emphasized the task of bringing the people's congress system in line with the times, promoting wide, multi-tiered and institutionalized consultative democracy, and giving full play to democracy at the community level.

China needs the CPC's leadership to ensure that the people really become the masters of the State. The CPC is also needed to make the hundreds of millions of Chinese work unitedly to build a beautiful future, promote socialist modernization, and maintain harmony and stability in China, and to safeguard national sovereignty and realize national rejuvenation. Only under the Party's leadership can China's reform and opening-up move forward smoothly and socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics make orderly progress.

Therefore, the CPC has to continue to follow scientific and democratic principles, rule the country in accordance with the law and promote people's democracy by deepening intra - Party democracy. A transparent, service-oriented government is taking shape in China, and the intensified anti-corruption campaign has reassured the people that the Party is determined to fight the "tigers as well as the flies" to safeguard social justice and promote a clean government.

Like most countries China, too, has traveled a long arduous path to find a development path that suits its ground realities, and it should stick to it to achieve ultimate success.

The author is an expert with the Institute of Contemporary China Studies, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.