He believed the model of development China has been pursuing over the past decades was extremely sound.

"(Late Chinese leader) Deng Xiaoping's 'socialist market economy' produced miraculous results. In less than 40 years, 200 million fewer people live in poverty, grain production has increased by 70 percent and China's share of world gross domestic product has grown from 1.8 percent to 6 percent."

But he believed China faced other issues of its own in banking, air and water quality, pollution and what he claimed were constraints in the financial markets.

Yet overall, China and the Boao Forum were on the right path.

"Boao and Davos will continue to host conferences. They have chosen different paths," Newman wrote. "One, more than the other, seems to promise tangible hope for the masses."