A Blueprint for People-Centered Development

The 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held its fourth plenary session in Beijing on October 20-23. The plenary session’s central task was to deliberate on the framework of the country’s next national development roadmap: the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), which will be formally adopted at next year’s full session of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.

Every five-year plan is important but this one arrives at a truly pivotal moment in terms of China’s development trajectory and the global environment.

The CPC’s 20th National Congress in October 2022 laid out a two-step strategic proposal for building China into a “great modern socialist country in all respects” by the middle of the century. The first step is to “basically achieve socialist modernization” by 2035. The period from 2026 to 2030 will be critically important in consolidating the foundations for reaching that milestone.

At the plenary session, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping, also Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, observed that the 15th Five-Year Plan period will serve as a critical stage in building on past successes to break new ground for basically achieving socialist modernization.

Xi further elaborated on the meaning of “basically achieving socialist modernization,” noting that it would include China’s per-capita GDP reaching the level of the mid-level developed countries. There is no internationally agreed definition of this category, but a State Council analysis in 2021 estimated that it would correspond to a per-capita GDP of about $30,000, just over double China’s current level.

Meanwhile, the 15th Five-Year Plan is being drafted against a backdrop of intensifying global turbulence. The U.S. in particular is responding to the rise of China and the emergence of a more multipolar world order with a New Cold War strategy designed to perpetuate U.S. hegemony and hobble China’s progress.

In the face of a highly unpredictable tariff war, export controls, unilateralism, protectionism and so-called decoupling—along with an escalating campaign of encirclement and containment—China’s strategists necessarily have to focus on deepening domestic innovation and technological self-reliance.

A modernized industrial system

The communique released following the conclusion of the plenum summed up the key tasks of the 15th Five-Year Plan. It says that China should maintain focus on the real economy, continue to pursue smart, green and integrated development, and work faster to boost its strength in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation and cyberspace. The share of manufacturing in the national economy should be kept at an appropriate level, and a modernized industrial system should be developed with advanced manufacturing as the backbone.

The meeting called for “extraordinary measures” to achieve “decisive breakthroughs” in semiconductors and other advanced technologies, including AI, quantum computing, hydrogen energy, nuclear fusion and 6G mobile communications. The most important factor in promoting high-quality development is accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance.

Common prosperity and people-centered development

If technological upgrading forms one pillar of the plan, common prosperity forms the other.

China defines modernization not as the enrichment of an elite, but as “modernization of common prosperity for all,” with full and high-quality employment, a fairer income distribution, a stronger safety net, improved public health and education, integrated urban-rural development, and rural revitalization as central components.

The document of recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted at the recent plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, is firmly anchored in the goal of common prosperity for all and the need to ensure and improve the people’s wellbeing. The document recommends a series of balanced and accessible policies and measures to promote high-quality full employment, optimize the income distribution system, develop education that meets the people’s expectations, refine the social security system, promote high-quality development in the real estate sector, advance the Healthy China Initiative, bolster high-quality population development, and make steady efforts to ensure equitable access to basic public services.

As such, the plan represents a comprehensive blueprint for people-centered development, integrating people’s wellbeing with the nation’s long-term strategic interests.

In pursuit of ecological civilization

The concept that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” summarized as “green is gold,” continues to anchor China’s environmental agenda.

The 15th Five-Year Plan emphasizes the need to accelerate the green transition in all areas of economic and social development in an effort to build a Beautiful China. It commits to making concerted efforts to achieve peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, strengthen ecosystem restoration and pollution reduction, and build a new energy system, while “accelerating the shift to eco-friendly production practices and lifestyles.”

China already leads the world in renewable energy, electric vehicles, biodiversity protection, forestation, pollution control, electrification and energy efficiency. It is the first major country to have successfully made green development a core national strategy and a driver of economic growth.

The 15th Five-Year Plan will further consolidate and expand these achievements, integrating the commitment to carbon neutrality into all aspects of development.

Democratic governance: from the masses, to the masses

A striking feature of the drafting process of the document of recommendations is the depth of public participation. The drafting group sent investigation teams to 12 provincial-level regions, visited 66 grassroots organizations, held symposiums with experts, and conducted a month-long online consultation that generated over 3.11 million public submissions and more than 1,500 constructive proposals.

By the end of the process, 2,112 suggestions had been incorporated, resulting in 218 revisions to the draft.

This reflects an enduring principle of CPC governance—the mass line, famously articulated by Mao Zedong. The CPC should go to the people and learn from them, synthesize their experience into better, articulated principles and methods, then call upon the people to put these principles and methods into practice so as to solve their problems and help them achieve liberation and happiness.

This notion of “from the masses, to the masses” is central to the formulation of policy in China, and Five-Year Plans are an important example of China’s whole-process people’s democracy.

Political continuity

The plenum stressed the importance of upholding and strengthening the leadership of the CPC, described by Xi as the fundamental guarantee for advancing Chinese modernization.

The plenum communique also emphasized that in pursuing economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the CPC must stay committed to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, and fully implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

When first embarking on its reform and opening-up drive in 1978, China’s leaders made a strategic decision to prioritize economic development while adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles: upholding the socialist road, upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship, upholding the leadership of the CPC and upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

This dual focus has remained a defining feature of China’s development model and goes a long way toward explaining its remarkable achievements. It is worthwhile comparing this strategy with the experience of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, where economic reform was accompanied by the dismantling of working class power and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s leading role, culminating in the USSR’s collapse.

In a turbulent and complex global environment, China continues to work toward socialist modernization, building common prosperity and an ecological civilization, while engaging with the world on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit. The 15th Five-Year Plan represents a comprehensive and forward-looking blueprint for achieving these goals.

The author is an independent political commentator and author of The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century (2023).