China offers a better development model than the West.

True or not true?

The British magazine The Economist is doing an online poll asking whether their readers are for or against such opinion.

As of Friday, 58 percent of voters sided with Susan Shirk, director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, a research unit of the University of California, who disagreed. The rest sided with Dr Stefan Halper, a senior fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, who nodded his head.

Amid the protracted economic downturn and regulatory loopholes in their own countries and the lasting economic miracles in China, Western scholars have begun to ponder their development model by coming up with such pro-or-con debates.

Fortunately, for those countries that follow the model of the West, the poll (by a Western magazine) showed that almost six out of ten voters still have confidence in their development patterns.

Echoing the polling result, Europe showed a sign of economic recovery on Friday after Germany announced its economy grew by 2.2 percent in the three months to the end of June, its fastest quarterly growth in more than two decades. The United States is still struggling with low economic growth and a high jobless rate.

But, such a poll result does show the West's recognition of China's progress. Western analysts believe there is a China model mainly because China has sustained its economic miracle and is on course to become the second biggest economy by the end of this year.

In their eyes, China's success results from the swift and efficient decision-making process they label "authoritarian capitalism," a vital component of the China model.

The con-side voters also focus on China's economic miracle, but claim that daunting wealth inequality, ecological degradation and corruption are the by-products of such a development strategy.

Arguing that China doesn't offer a better development model than the West, Susan Shirk, a world-famous China studies scholar, is publishing a book titled Changing Media, Changing China, which will be published in December. She clearly understands that the essence of China development is changing, changing and changing.

Against such a backdrop, it is assumed that Shirk doesn't agree with The Economist motion, not because the Western model is better, but because the China model has not taken shape, as change is still the theme of this country.