The View | Can party wean itself off growth at all costs?

In a rare mention of the Tiananmen crackdown in the mainland press, the state-run Global Times recently argued that the past 25 years of economic expansion proved that Beijing was right to suppress political dissent in 1989.

The piece pointed to social and economic upheavals in places like Eastern Europe and Egypt as examples of the chaos that can ensue when the leadership is not strong - unlike the Chinese Communist Party which fought for "28 years" before gaining control of the state.

"There is no doubt that the [party] made serious mistakes in its early years as the ruling power," the Global Times said last week in an article that appeared in both the English and Chinese versions of the newspaper. "But since the 1980s, China has got back on track."

It would seem hard to argue with growth that at one point remained above 10 per cent for a decade, pulling millions of Chinese out of dire poverty and creating an urban middle class.

But if economic growth is seen as proof that the party is the rightful custodian of the modern state, then the flip side is that faltering growth would indicate illegitimacy.