HAVANA, June 27 -- Cuba's leading newspaper on Friday praised China's success in devising and following its own development model to sustain its position as one of today's leading powers of trade.

In a lengthy feature article, headlined "China and the realization of a dream," daily newspaper Granma praised the Asian nation for "choosing its own path to development."

In the past 35 years, China has lifted millions out of poverty, built modern cities, attracted the world's most important businesses and become "one of the main trade partners for Europe, the United States, Latin America, Asia and Africa," said the article.

The author, who attended a recent seminar in China on "Socialism in the 21st Century," noted that now China has succeeded in generating wealth, it is looking to fairly distribute that wealth.

To do that, the article said, China "has chosen its own path to development: socialism with Chinese particularities, in harmony with nature, with its neighbors and with the world."

In the past, development in China was intensively driven by foreign investment and exports, a situation with certain drawbacks, including environmental pollution and uneven regional growth.

This new stage, in contrast, "is oriented towards a growth model... that will grant a much greater role to science and technology in production, and concerned with building a civilization that is ecologically sustainable," said Granma.

China's development reform will "redirect its growth model towards domestic consumption," taking advantage of being home to "the world's largest market," added the newspaper, noting that it will also "limit its dependence on the exterior."

The state plans to reduce its role in socioeconomic and business activities, and to that end has created the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, a testing ground for economic and social reforms, said the article.

"China has successfully adapted the laws of the marketplace to its concrete conditions and needs, without abandoning its socialist imperative to leave no one behind," Granma said.