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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, March 12 (Xinhua) — China's annual "two sessions" in 2026 have attracted intense global attention as lawmakers set not only the current year's agenda but also a blueprint for the country's development path through the end of the decade.
The sessions of China's top legislative body and top political advisory body took place against a backdrop of increasing global turbulence. With geopolitical rivalries increasingly spilling over the established rules and conflicts in the Middle East escalating, the international order is facing unprecedented strain.
The policy choices of China—the world's second-largest economy with a population of over 1.4 billion—have far-reaching impacts beyond its borders. Therefore, the direction set at this year's "two sessions" will be closely monitored, especially given that many expect China to signal stability in an increasingly uncertain world.
The draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026-2030), submitted to the National People's Congress (NPC) for consideration, explains that over the next five years, China will move toward the goal of achieving basic modernization by 2035, one of the distinguishing features of which is an emphasis on peaceful development.
According to the project, in the next five years, China is expected to promote integrated development with neighboring countries and maintain overall stability in relations with major powers.
At a press conference on China's foreign policy and foreign relations during the 4th session of the 14th National People's Congress, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that China will absolutely not follow the path of hegemony paved by other powers and does not accept the logic of "great power joint governance."
Analysts believe China's desire for peace is partly driven by deep-rooted cultural and historical instincts.
Throughout its millennia-long history, China has long been among the world's leading countries. Its influence has typically spread through trade, ideological, and cultural exchanges, rather than through conquest or colonization.
Trade caravans plied the ancient Silk Road across continents, and the Chinese explorer Zheng He reached Africa on his 15th-century voyages, leaving behind silk, tea, and porcelain rather than fortresses, colonies, or cannon shots.
Such restraint was a conscious choice, an integral part of classical Chinese statecraft. The ancient Chinese treatise "The Art of War" elevates defeating the enemy without engaging in battle to the highest strategic ideal, and ancient thinkers warned that powers that prefer military action ultimately perish.
China's modern history has entrenched this national mentality even more brutally. Following the Opium War of 1840, China endured invasions, abuse, and humiliation at the hands of Western powers. The Japanese invasion, which began in the early 1930s and continued through World War II, left deep and lasting scars.
These experiences strengthened the Chinese aversion to war and reinforced the belief that the country's recovery and revival should come through internal efforts rather than external expansion.
The decades since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 have confirmed the correctness of this path. China has never started a war or seized a single centimeter of foreign land, yet it has become the world's second-largest economy, a position it has held for over a decade.
This position not only embodies the cultural continuity of the Chinese nation, but also reflects the fundamental philosophy of the ruling CPC.
For China, peaceful development is not just banal diplomatic rhetoric; it is embedded in the country's institutional structure and is clearly enshrined in both the Constitution of the PRC and the Charter of the CPC.
In 2013, China put forward the initiative to build a community with a shared future for humanity and made it clear that in this era full of challenges, humanity's enemies are not people among themselves, but war, poverty, hunger, and injustice.
No one can face these challenges alone, and no one can hope to navigate the path by pursuing only their own interests. Instead, the world must unite to build a shared future.
At a deeper structural level, China's global confidence is based on the fact that the country maintains connections with the rest of the world through trade and production networks.
China covers all industrial categories listed in the UN Industrial Classification. As the world's largest trader of goods and one of the leading consumer markets in terms of purchasing power parity, China maintains extensive trade relations with more than 160 countries and regions worldwide.
Such interdependence can be said to be one of the most effective guarantees of global security, since mutual economic interests can help mitigate geopolitical rivalry.
The upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) is expected to take this model of global interaction to the next stage: the country will further expand its openness policy, promote balanced trade, and improve the overseas structure of its production and supply chains.
Despite such extensive economic ties, China maintains a defensive military posture. For example, China's defense spending as a share of GDP has remained around 1.5 percent for many years. Meanwhile, NATO members have pledged to further increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035.
To the east, China's neighbor Japan spent three times as much on defense as China per capita in fiscal year 2025, and its per-serviceman spending was more than double China's.
China adheres to a no-first-use policy for nuclear weapons. It is the second-largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and the leading contributor of troops to such operations among the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
China strives for peace, but also recognizes that maintaining it requires vigilance.
There are many ways to protect peace, ensure security, and prevent war, but military capability remains the most fundamental guarantee. China is unequivocally committed to protecting its sovereignty, security, and development interests. This determination cannot be underestimated. -0-
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