Abstract from the 5-book series, China Today: Understanding the Communist Party of China

To put it simply, the Chinese miracle is the modernization of a nation with a population of 1.3 billion people. In other words, China has virtually completed modernization of its population in just over six decades. Once mocked as the "sick man of East Asia", China, an ancient civilization, has been revitalized to become a world power and has worked the Chinese miracle.

The Chinese miracle, therefore, is not a creation of some god, but should be attributed to efforts of 1.3 billion people. In the historical process of modernization, it is mainly because of the vast population in China that the nation's modernization is regarded as a wonder with worldwide implications. China, whose population outnumbers the total population of countries that have been previously modernized throughout the globe, is so huge that its modernization undoubtedly electrifies the whole world. In addition, since it equals the total population of the developed world, all of China's practices during modernization have universal significance, which has enlightened other developing countries and their peoples and set an important example in terms of diversity of culture and development paths.

Besides the huge population involved, sustained rapid development is another hallmark of China's modernization.

－From Exploring the Miracle: The Truths Behind China's Modernization