The invention provides a power control method for a code division multiple access system, comprising the steps: a base station adjusts a base station signal to interference ratio target value according to a coding result of a transmission block; a wireless network controller obtains a new wireless network controller signal to interference ratio target value according a signal to interference ratiodeviation value reported to the base station and the coding result of the transmission block, and controls outer loop power with the new wireless network controller signal to interference ratio target value; and the base station obtains a new base station signal to interference ratio target value according to the adjusted base station signal to interference ratio target value target value and thenew wireless network controller signal to interference ratio target value. The invention also provides a power control method for the code division multiple access system. The invention can fast reduce the wireless network controller signal to interference ratio target value for the outer loop power control and the base station signal to interference ratio target value for the inner power control, and has fast convergence speed, thereby effectively saving the transmission power of UE and the capacity resource of the network.