It is too early to say that China has its own unique economic growth model as the country was still in an early stage of development, said a leading expert on Marxist theory.

Yi Junqing, director of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, a major think tank in China, told China News Week in its latest issue that the country is in an early stage of development.

China's National People's Congress will convene its annual session on Saturday. Lawmakers will review and adopt the national development program for the next five years.

If China did not settle issues related to the people's livelihoods, the country would face great challenges, Yi said in the interview in the magazine published Thursday.

"If China has a unique development path, it's not fully established," he said.

The country is internationally engaged, sharing the risks and problems of other countries, but has not really benefited from the distribution of global resources, he said.

Although the country's economic growth has been widely acknowledged, Chinese culture and values have not been accepted given the lingering arguments about the "China threat," he said.