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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) — The world's second-largest economy is formulating a new development plan through 2030: the draft of the 15th Five-Year Plan has been submitted for consideration to the ongoing annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislative body.
The new plan covers a period that is widely seen as crucial as China enters the final decade of its drive to “basically achieve socialist modernization by 2035,” allowing it to move further toward its goal of building a modernized socialist power in all respects by mid-century.
As China moves toward modernization, it places particular emphasis on ensuring that economic growth brings broader and more balanced benefits to society as a whole. This principle is embodied in the draft Five-Year Plan and aims to ensure significant progress in achieving shared prosperity.
The pursuit of shared prosperity, which involves overcoming uneven and incomplete development, expanding the middle-income group, and improving access to basic public services for 1.4 billion people, is perceived as a distinctive feature of Chinese modernization, distinguishing it from Western development models.
Universal prosperity also represents socialist China's response to the negative factors that have contributed to widening income gaps and strains in social security systems in many advanced capitalist countries.
This approach reflects the ruling Communist Party of China's (CPC) long-standing people-centered approach, which prioritizes human well-being over maximizing capital profits as the cornerstone of modernization, said Yin Jun, deputy director of Peking University's Center for Modernization Studies.
To further strengthen this, the CPC launched a five-month campaign in February to cultivate a correct view of official merit, calling on party members and officials to focus on serving the public interest and improving people's living standards, while rejecting short-termism and showmanship.
With this management concept, projects that don't generate immediate financial returns can still be launched if they improve people's lives. In central China, a suspension bridge was built connecting two remote villages across a canyon to improve local residents' access to the outside world. But today, its dramatic scenery also attracts tourists, bringing in new income.
Such examples demonstrate how China's pursuit of shared prosperity is helping to ensure that the benefits of development are shared by all.
The 15th Five-Year Plan envisages the practical completion of a more interconnected high-speed rail network with eight vertical and eight horizontal lines, as well as a nationwide expressway system, within the next five years. This would better connect developed and less developed regions, smooth the flow of resources, and more evenly distribute the benefits of growth.
Contrary to the Western notion of this as egalitarianism or redistribution, which supposedly weakens market incentives, this approach aims to expand the economic “pie” while improving distribution.
Since the beginning of its reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, China has adhered to this concept, allowing some regions and population groups to prosper first and encouraging them to help others as well.
Over the years, it has helped the country maintain its position as the world's second-largest economy, develop the largest middle-income population, and steadily improve people's living standards.
The draft charts a clearer path for China to move forward in the new planning cycle, while narrowing the development gaps between urban and rural areas, as well as between regions, remains high on the agenda.
Achieving shared prosperity in a country as vast and diverse as China poses enormous challenges, Yin Jun said.
Rural areas, home to approximately 450 million people, represent the frontline in the struggle for shared prosperity. The project devotes a separate section to accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas and the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), following the achievement of the important goal of eliminating extreme poverty in 2021, the country made significant progress in consolidating these achievements and accelerating rural revitalization. At the same time, rural income growth outpaced that of urban areas.
Guo Qingli, an NPC deputy from Liaoning Province and a vegetable farmer, has witnessed the changes firsthand. "Thanks to intelligent temperature-controlled greenhouses and accelerated cold-chain logistics, our vegetables are now delivered fresh throughout the country, nearly doubling farmers' incomes over the past five years," she said.
Building on these achievements, the project proposes to expand support for industry and employment to promote more sustainable growth, while modernizing rural infrastructure and increasing farmers' incomes.
China also emphasizes the need to increase investment in human capital alongside traditional spending on physical infrastructure.
By prioritizing investment in people and ensuring that material resources are channeled toward serving human development, China aims to transform its demographic dividend into a talent dividend and unleash the internal driving force for shared prosperity, said Zhang Rong, an NPC deputy from Fujian Province and secretary of the CPC Xiamen University Committee.
Employment is central to the shared prosperity strategy, underpinning economic growth, income distribution, and social mobility. In 2025, China created 12.67 million new urban jobs, and the average unemployment rate in the cities surveyed was 5.2 percent, reflecting overall stability in the labor market.
The project places “quality and adequate employment” at the forefront of improving living conditions, focusing not only on job creation but also on vocational training systems that support skills development across age groups.
Such policies will be accompanied by efforts to create a more elliptical income distribution structure. Market mechanisms will continue to reward labor, skills, and innovation, while redistribution through taxation, social security, and transfer payments will be strengthened.
The draft plan places a special emphasis on public services. Education, healthcare, and elderly care are considered essential public goods. Unlike systems in which such services are widely sold, China seeks to maintain a stronger role for the state, striving to share development achievements more widely, Zhang Rong said.
From 2021 to 2025, over 70 percent of the total state budget was allocated to improving living conditions. The draft plan for the coming years identifies 20 key economic and social development indicators, seven of which relate to employment, income, education, healthcare, elderly and child care services, and life expectancy, reflecting the transition from basic needs to higher-quality social security. It also outlines major projects aimed at addressing pressing public needs in these areas.
The draft stipulates that public services will be extended to broader segments of the population, including those living in rural areas. Priority will be given to remote regions and disadvantaged groups. Social security systems will provide more robust protection for vulnerable groups, including children and people with disabilities.
Decades of efforts to promote shared prosperity have yielded results in inclusive development. China currently boasts the world's largest education system, healthcare network, and social security system, as well as an extensive urban housing support system. However, demographic changes, industrial transformation, and rising public expectations require constant policy adaptation.
"Once China achieves universal prosperity, rising incomes and the expansion of middle-income groups are expected to create a large consumer market, providing a sustainable boost to the global economy," said Li Kai, an economics professor at Xiamen University. -0-
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