New 5-year plan policy package attracts attention
► Top-level design biggest advantage of Chinese system for devt: experts
As China moves toward its first centennial goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the end of 2020, the upcoming 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for national economic and social development has drawn domestic and international attention since it will lay the foundation for China to step into an era of a great modern country amid increasing external uncertainties and realize national rejuvenation.
Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the creation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development on several occasions in recent months.
Formulating and implementing the five-year plans are important ways for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to govern the country, Xi told a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday.
The fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee will be held in Beijing in October. One main item on the agenda is to draw up the 14th FiveYear Plan.
Analysts said that given growing uncertainties, the 14th Five-Year Plan has attracted great attention, as it will be the first five-year plan after China accomplishes building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and realizing its first centennial goal in 2020, as well as making all-out efforts to achieve its second centennial goal – to build a great modern socialist country around 2049.
The “two centennial goals” refer to building a moderately prosperous society in all respects by the centennial of the CPC, which was established in 1921, and building a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced and harmonious by the centennial of the People’s Republic of China, which was founded in 1949.
As China has set its long-term goal for national rejuvenation, and every five-year plan brings it a step closer to that goal, the 14th Five-Year Plan that will be made at the intersection of the two centennial goals would set the tone and lay the foundation for building a great power. It is also expected to open a new situation amid increasing uncertainties in the post-COVID-19 era, Yan Yilong, a research fellow with the Center for China Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, said that amid a more complicate global economic and political environment, especially as the US intensifies confrontations with China and will not alter its tough policies in the near future, the 14th Five-Year Plan is also about how China would subtly and effectively protect its development and interests.
China has sent the clearest sign that it will throw more policy weight to further prop up its economy, with a massive consumer market to cope with fast evolving external risks.
Institutional advantage
Aside from providing the general direction, the 14th Five-Year Plan is more like “a super policy package” – setting quantitative indexes on many fields, including economic growth and environmental protection, and listing major programs and infrastructure projects affecting people’s livelihood, Yan said.
The five-year plan is also one of the great achievements and characteristics of CPC governance as it maintains the consistency of policymaking and combines the superiority of socialist society with the market economy, experts said.
Yan cited Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Engle as saying that while China is making five-year plans for the next generation, Americans are planning only for the next election. Yan noted this top design is a scientific blueprint made based on a wide range of opinions.