As the Communist Party of China undertakes its once-in-a-decade leadership transition in Beijing, many people in the United States wonder about the path China will choose and whether it will continue building on its reform and opening-up endeavors.

Henry Kissinger, former US secretary of state and an old China hand.

But for the old China hand Henry Kissinger, who has worked with every Chinese leader since the 1970s, the answer is clear: China will become more open and transparent and carry out the reforms it deems necessary in its own way.

The former US secretary of state and national security adviser expects to see transformations in the Chinese economy and society as well as foreign policy in the coming decade.

"I think it (China) will be more transparent, its legal system will be more predictable," Kissinger said during a recent seminar at a Washington think tank on China's leadership transition.

"But it has huge adjustments to make."

He said that one of the major transformations in China over the next 10 years will be the urbanization of more than 400 million farmers, which will test the country's infrastructure, economy and even traditional value systems.

Kissinger noted that China's future generation will be unique: most of them raised in one-child families and the first generation in hundreds of years that has never experienced upheaval.