Four important principles

Xi, in his book Up and Out of Poverty, sets out four important principles: avoiding a poverty mentality; adopting development measures suitable to local conditions; the importance of strong leadership and coordination; and not wasting money on grandiose projects just because they may be popular.

Perry said these fundamental principles sound very simple and obvious, and "only a man who is very experienced can sum them up in such a simple way".

"When I meet him I always think I'm meeting a man who never forgot the people who are very poor."

Achieving the two centenary goals is key to realizing the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation, which is Xi's transformative vision for China, an overarching unifying principle for the Chinese people.

Apart from realizing a moderately prosperous society, another centenary goal is to build China into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the time the People's Republic of China celebrates its centenary in 2049.

In the long term, Perry said, challenges to China come mainly from the outside world.

He said there will be transformations in the domestic economy, and China will achieve its targets by 2049. However, there is apprehension about this in the outside world.

"The external contradiction with a Western world that fears the rise of China and the transformation of the world, and other countries that may also think that they can get better out of the world by being associated with the West are the challenges that China now faces.

"That is where I think the risk is greatest."

Over the past two years trade disputes between the United States and China have brought many uncertainties to the world economy, and in January the two countries signed their phase-one economic and trade agreement.