Party Central Committee's third plenum raises reform expectations

The drama and intrigue of politics has been China's focus for much of the past 12 months, from the 10-yearly leadership transition to the biggest political scandal in decades, replete with merciless internal fighting.

But with the gripping trial of Bo Xilai over and the former Chongqing party chief sentenced to life in prison, the Communist Party's new leadership has switched its attention to the country's future as it prepares for a keynote meeting next month that will set the policy agenda.

The third plenum of the Central Committee, the Communist Party's decision-making body, may sound mundane, but previous third plenums have marked major turning points in the political history of modern China. And there are hopes that this one will mark another milestone.

How did the third plenum come to be so significant? Historians point to the conclave of 1978. Two years after Mao Zedong's death, the party and the nation were on a knife-edge, poised between the rival philosophies of vice-premier Deng Xiaoping and the conservative faction headed by Hua Guofeng, the party chairman, who remained staunchly faithful to the "great helmsman".

With the victory of the Deng credo - "practice is the only test of truth" - over Hua's "two whatevers" (support whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made and follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave), the meeting marked a step away from the mantra of socialist revolution towards economic development.

China has since prioritised a modernisation that is ruthlessly pragmatic and non-ideological, and historians see the events of the plenum as the catalyst for the transformation of what was an economic backwater into the world's second-largest economy.

Today, analysts say China is at as critical juncture as it was 35 years ago and that the new leadership under Xi Jinping faces a make-or-break choice at the plenum.