In a year when the mainland's growth continued at breakneck speed, and there was a growing global backlash against tainted Chinese exports and an outcry over the slavery of brick-kiln workers, it was the October meeting of political chiefs in Beijing that provided the landmark event of the calendar. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party in Beijing was the defining political event of the year, providing a glimpse of the power elite who would run the nation five years from now. But rather than any bold changes, analysts said, the congress emphasised the belief that a minor tinkering with the existing political templates was best to continue China's prosperity and reinforce Beijing's authoritarian role. Canada-based China scholar Bruce Gilley said 2007 marked a year of growing pessimism about prospects for a more liberal China. For better or for worse, the world's fastest-growing economy has become more assertive about charting its own course for development, as it becomes more confident in its role as a rising global power. The 17th National Congress marked a return of the great debate about where next China's reforms should take the country. In the lead up to the five-yearly conclave, 'democracy' turned out to be one of the hot topics, in which a clash of ideologies within the party reached fever pitch and spilled over into the public sphere. China, entering its 29th year of economic reforms and opening up, had no shortage of leftists howling about socialism going astray. But a few brave voices did get their point across, with one impassioned call from a party veteran for a Scandinavian-style democracy in China. Political science professor at Boston University, Joseph Fewsmith, said the biggest political event in China for the past five years had strongly reaffirmed the status quo. If anything, observers said, double-digit economic growth seemed to have provided all the incentives for the ruling elite not to seek political liberalisation. Beijing now looks surer than ever to continue the double game it's been playing for nearly three decades: maintaining a fast-growing capitalist economy within the framework of one-party rule. President and party chief Hu Jintao , renewing his mandate for another (and final) five years at the congress, did manage to raise the level of the game and alter the terms of engagement. His policy direction, under the catchphrase 'scientific development', seeks to render the Chinese juggernaut fairer, greener and more sustainable. This development strategy, signalling a major shift from the urban-biased, coastal-biased, GDP-obsessed growth model characterising the era of his predecessor Jiang Zemin , was enshrined into the party constitution at the congress and will guide the country for the foreseeable future. Another tweak of the system ratified this year was related to democracy. After using the word more than 60 times in his 21/2-hour speech on the opening day of the congress, Mr Hu clarified its applications within the party. Such 'intra-party democracy' suggested an in-house mechanism to increase accountability, transparency and feedback for a 73 million-member political organisation that is being hampered by rampant corruption, decay of grass-roots party structures and growing cynicism towards its rulers. The single biggest outcome of the party congress was a new leadership lineup reflecting the delicate balance of power within the party. Xi Jinping , the 54-year-old Shanghai party chief whose political profile was known to be acceptable to all party factions, emerged as a compromise candidate to take up the country's top job in 2012. Although his preferred successor - Liaoning provincial party boss Li Keqiang - lost the race by a whisker, Mr Hu made sure that a batch of tuanpai - officials associated with the Communist Youth League, which is Mr Hu's power base - ascend to the 25-strong policy-making Politburo. Vice-President Zeng Qinghong , arguably one of the most powerful figures in Zhongnanhai for the past decade, voluntarily stepped down from the inner circle in a gesture to show respect for an unofficial retirement age of 68, but only after seeing a couple of his close allies fill the void he left in the Politburo's nine-member Standing Committee - the country's top ruling body. On a broader power level, the regime was replenished with a well-mixed 371-member Central Committee made up of provincial bigwigs, economic elites, technocratic reformers, party ideologues and entrepreneurs. The party's efforts to institutionalise the leadership succession stems largely from deep-seated fears of a destructive penchant for infighting and cult of personality. Mr Hu, despite growing clout, is no more than first among equals. His successor will have less authority, with the authoritarian regime having evolved to accept consensus rule. The overarching goal among Beijing's leaders, as the congress showed, is how to optimise the party machine to confront domestic and international challenges and stay in power. In the past year the party-state has also devised ways to move and adapt. Two non-communist cabinet appointments were made - the first since the 1970s - and a raft of laws were passed, if only for the purpose of facilitating growth, making governance more effective, or easing public anger over social injustice. The Property Law, the mainland's first piece of legislation to protect private ownership, was approved in March after about 13 years of controversy and a record seven readings by top legislators. It was welcomed by millions of urban homeowners - a key social force the communist party wants to woo. A new labour law intended to improve working conditions was passed at the end of June, a few weeks after the horrific discovery of slavery at rural brick kilns in Shanxi province. In August, the country's first anti-monopoly law was approved, prompting pessimists to bemoan its potential constraints on foreign corporate expansion in China. Populist rhetoric and policies continued in 2007, as Mr Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao reaffirmed their credentials as champions of those who had not benefited from reforms. Free education began this year for rural students during their nine years of compulsory schooling. A nationwide rural minimum allowance system was set up and a basic medical care scheme expanded to cover 80 per cent of rural areas by the end of this year. But not all went smoothly. An Asian Development Bank report in August warned of a widening wealth gap, with latest figures showing the country's Gini coefficient - the most commonly used measure of the wealth gap - threatened to reach Latin American levels. Product safety issues, which had pestered domestic consumers for so long, in 2007 turned into a global public relations disaster that forced the government to consult public relations firm Ogilvy for crisis management tips. The 'made-in-China' label took a beating after almost weekly recalls or the banning of Chinese exports, ranging from tainted pet food and toxic toothpaste, to defective tyres and poisonous toys. Corruption, identified by the leadership as 'a lethal threat' to the system, showed no sign of abating in 2007, despite a strengthened drive aided by a new anti-graft agency. The year's biggest catches were former financial minister Jin Renqing , removed abruptly from office in August amid a sex scandal, and former food and drug safety tsar Zheng Xiaoyu , who was executed in September for taking bribes. Despite the national mantra of 'building a harmonious society', social tensions continued to rise. Mass incidents - a euphemism for protests, riots and demonstrations - showed a new trend this year, in an intriguing indication of the evolving dynamics between an authoritarian state and a liberalising society. Several public protests revealed that the electronic media has increasingly become the weapon of choice for the disgruntled to engage the government. There was a rise in protests because of environmental concerns. In June, about 10,000 residents in the coastal city of Xiamen , marshalled through notices posted on the internet and sent via text messages, marched in protest against the construction of a toxic chemical plant. Elsewhere, there were deaths from disasters such as mudslides in areas near the Three Gorges Dam and numerous coal-mining accidents. There was also a massive algal bloom in the southeastern part of Taihu, the country's third-largest freshwater lake. Panicked residents in the nearby city of Wuxi rushed to clear supermarket shelves of bottled water after tap supplies turned putrid. Edward Friedman, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he was impressed by the regime's resilience and adaptability in maintaining power and growth. 'There are billions of problems in the system but after you list them all I don't see any system crisis,' he said, adding that China 'continues to soar economically, politically and militarily at a high pace beyond most expectations'. Beijing this year quickened the pace of converting its economic power into military muscle, with an 18 per cent increase in the military budget. World powers expressed concern at what they labelled a habit of secrecy and lack of sensibility exhibited by the People's Liberation Army. Beijing's generals seemed unaware of diplomacy - and space etiquette - when they stunned the west by shooting down an old weather satellite in an unannounced test, and when the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier and other US naval vessels were mysteriously refused permission a Hong Kong port of call last month. In contrast to such secrecy, a public fuss was made over the launch of Chang'e I - the lunar probe blasting off from Sichuan on October 24. The launch was the first foray to the moon for China and was beamed live to the country's 1.3 billion people. Prestige matters deeply to Beijing and instilling in the public a sense of national pride has proven to be an effective way of bolstering the Communist Party's legitimacy. The one-year countdown to next year's Olympics was the focus of another massive publicity stunt when Games organisers put on a spectacular show in Tiananmen Square on August 8 to tell the world 'We're ready'. Over the year, a string of architectural projects have been taking shape in the capital, including a futuristic Olympic stadium resembling a bird's nest and a colossal egg-shaped opera house. This year Beijing also started in earnest to portray itself as a world power. The message was encoded in a hugely popular TV series broadcast by CCTV in March entitled The Rise of Great Power. 'Beijing concedes and compromises less and promotes its goals more forcefully all over the globe,' Professor Friedman said. Besides continuing to court African nations and Asean neighbours, China's biggest diplomatic gain this year was made with an old foe. Perhaps the year's most symbolic event for closer Sino-Japanese ties was the sailing of a Chinese warship into Tokyo Bay in November, the first such visit to Japan since the second world war. The premier's 'ice-melting' trip to Japan in April looked to have at least melted the tip of the iceberg - remarkably so in a year studded with sensitive anniversaries such as this month's 70th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre. Despite business-as-usual bickering over trade and currency issues, and US President George W. Bush's hosting of the Dalai Lama in the White House, China's relations with the US remained 'cordial', said June Teufel Dreyer, a political scientist at the University of Miami. The two powers have united to deter Pyongyang's nuclear aspirations and Beijing secured an explicit opposition from Washington to Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's planned referendum on whether the island should apply to join the United Nations under the name of 'Taiwan'. The cross-strait relations issue was 'low-key' this year, said Professor Dreyer, because Beijing was waiting to see the results of Taiwan's presidential election in March and was keen to downplay tensions in the run-up to the Olympics. As preparations continue for the Olympics in August, Beijing remains cautious and alert. Steve Tsang, a China scholar at Oxford University, said the ability of Mr Hu's government to deal with challenges has improved since five years ago. 'The party is stronger,' he said.