But the first noticeable policy recalibration came four months later when a CPC Central Committee decision on issues regarding the improvement of the socialist market economic system was promulgated.

This document detailed a dozen imminent tasks for the building of the "xiao kang" society, further shifting the Party and government's attention from GDP growth toward many chronic issues, including regional wealth gaps, protection of parochial interests, energy resources and land shortages, environment and ecology, employment opportunities, benefits of workers and the rights of minorities bypassed by the boom.

In the following annual plenary sessions of the 16th CPC Central Committee, new policies were constantly designed and summarized with terms such as "raising the Party's governance capability","coordinated development" and "building a harmonious society", repeated in newspaper headlines, and on TV and radio broadcasts and the speeches of government officials.

The government abolished agricultural taxes for farmers and textbook fees for pupils in rural areas. Medical insurance formerly reserved for urbanites became available to farmers while industrial accident insurance become compulsory for migrant laborers.

Ministries suffer public humiliation if they fail auditing scrutiny while companies making profits at the expense of the environment can be closed down. High-income earners were taxed more while monopolistic centrally-administered state-owned enterprises were ordered to turn in profits over to state coffers.

"It's clear the CPC leadership wants to straighten out the mechanism of the Socialist economy, eliminate corruption and have the government take back responsibilities mistakenly transferred to mere market forces, especially in education, medicare and environmental improvement," says Zhou Tianyong.

However, after focusing almost exclusively on the pursuit of economic growth, China finds itself challenged by thorny issues that require long-term solutions. Closing the urban-rural wealth gap which hit 3.3:1 in 2006 -- compared with the international average of 1.8:1 -- for instance, is widely viewed as a huge hurdle, needing far-reaching and massive reform.