NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will "set the direction" for further facilitating the country's economic reforms for sustained growth, a renowned U.S. expert on China has said.

The CPC will "more aggressively push the reforms," particularly the 60-point reform blueprint it unveiled in 2013, Avery Goldstein, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania (U Penn), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"There really is not an alternative to relying on market forces if China can succeed economically," he said.

The speed of China's development in the past five years is very impressive, said Goldstein, citing "two big things" he experienced on his most recent visit to China in September.

The first is the booming bike-sharing programs in China, said Goldstein, who is also director of the Center for the Study of Contemporary China of the University of Pennsylvania.

He noted that wherever he went in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing, he would always see the trademark orange and yellow bicycles of Mobike and Ofo, China's top two bike-sharing heavyweights. "All of a sudden, they are everywhere. How can this happen in a year?" he said.

China's high-speed rail is the second big thing that "very impressed" the professor during his visit.

"As you know, high-speed rail in China is perfectly smooth. It's almost always on time," he said. "It makes it easier for people to do business in China, certainly makes it easier for me to go from city to city, and to work on the train."

Goldstein also pointed out that the party's crackdown on corruption "has been a positive thing, a major accomplishment," adding that "one of the challenges the CPC faces is how do you prevent corruption from repeating itself, from occurring again."

Moreover, China has developed "a clearer approach" to the management of its foreign policy in the past five years, Goldstein said.

Under President Xi Jinping, China can play a larger role internationally, he said, noting that China defends its sovereignty and meanwhile encourages cooperation with other countries on issues of global governance.

China has also been playing a leading role in terms of "preventing the rejection of an open international economic order" through initiatives and projects such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative, Goldstein said.

On global issues like climate change, "China can't do it alone, but I do think that China, sticking with this path, makes it more likely that eventually even the United States will come back to the consensus on climate change," he said.