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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
Author: Alberto Lebron
This week, China is hosting a meeting of enormous importance – not only for the country itself, but for the entire world.
The meeting is about the Fourth Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCC), which is taking place in Beijing from October 20 to 23. During the session, the CPC Central Committee will consider proposals for developing the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for the country's socio-economic development.
The new Five-Year Plan is significant because it will define the fundamental guiding principles for China's socioeconomic progress over the next five years. In fact, the 14th, 15th, and 16th Five-Year Plans share a common strategic goal: achieving socialist modernization in China by 2035. This entails, among other things, raising per capita income to the level of moderately developed countries through the expansion of emerging industries, digital transformation, accelerated urbanization, and agricultural modernization. From an environmental perspective, China has also committed to peaking greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which coincides with the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan.
These ambitious goals are within reach thanks to the successful implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). The country's modernization process maintains steady momentum, fueled in particular by high levels of investment in research and development, which reached approximately US$510 billion in 2024. The digital economy currently accounts for approximately 10 percent of China's GDP, and emerging industries—from advanced machinery to new materials—are projected to contribute 17 percent of GDP this year. Furthermore, energy consumption per unit of GDP in China has decreased by 11.6 percent in 2024 compared to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020).
China is moving from a stage of industrial development characterized by large-scale investment, low-value-added exports, and environmental pressures to a more advanced model of a developed economy.
Investment continues to flow into high-tech, high-value-added sectors, which accounted for 34.6 percent of all foreign direct investment in 2024. According to data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC), China's electric vehicle exports exceeded two million units for the first time in 2024, marking another rapid breakthrough in moving up the value chain.
Just a few years ago, the phrase "Made in China" was associated with a low-value-added production system that allowed Western companies to reduce labor costs without concern for the environment. Today, many products are still manufactured in China, but with a new label—"Invented in China." This transformation not only increases product value but also significantly contributes to social well-being by creating more skilled jobs and "green incentives" that ensure the environmental sustainability of the new model.
The new paradigm, “Invented in China,” aims to make scientific and cultural contributions to global development: from lunar south pole exploration to the development of fusion energy, open-source artificial intelligence (the DeepSeek chatbot), hyper-realistic video games (Dark Myth: Wukong), collectible toys (Labubu), futuristic robots (Unitree), and box-office animated films (Nezha Conquers the Dragon King).
Thus, the 15th Five-Year Plan is more than just a list of economic goals to be achieved by 2030. Achieving developed country status will also require cultural development, a world-class education system, a highly skilled workforce, athletic excellence, and high levels of public health. Consequently, the next Five-Year Plan represents not only a roadmap for the next five years but also a crucial step toward realizing China's socialist modernization by 2035.
It is well known that China consistently advocates openness, international cooperation, and multilateralism. In this regard, the 15th Five-Year Plan will also contribute China's experience of modernization to ensuring global stability and economic growth, global technological innovation, the transition to a green and low-carbon economy, the alignment of international development strategies, and strengthening the resilience of global supply chains through China's engagement with the world.
Note: Alberto Lebron, Ph.D., Peking University
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Xinhua News Agency.
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