Officials: CPC's recommendations set tone for China's development in next five years

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a press conference on Friday in Beijing to brief the media on the fourth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee.

The 20th CPC Central Committee convened its fourth plenary session in Beijing from Monday to Thursday. Participants at the session deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, according to a communique of the session released on Thursday.

Speaking at the press conference, Jiang Jinquan, head of the CPC Central Committee Policy Research Office, said that the most important outcome of the session was the review and adoption of the recommendations.

He noted that the 20th CPC Central Committee set the goal of basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035, and that the upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) will be a crucial stage to consolidate the foundation and push ahead on all fronts toward that goal.

Formulating the recommendations is essential to advancing the blueprint set out by the 20th CPC Central Committee in a phased and systematic way, responding to new changes in the external environment, and maintaining strategic initiative amid intensifying international competition, Jiang pointed out.

It is also necessary for meeting China's evolving development requirements and further promoting high-quality growth, he added.

According to Jiang, the recommendations comprise 15 sections and 61 articles, divided into three major parts. The first outlines the country's achievements during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and explains the significance and overall requirements for development in the coming years. The second details strategic tasks and major initiatives across key areas, while the third focuses on upholding and strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee and advancing socialist democracy and the rule of law.

Jiang also said participants at the session held extensive discussions on the document and gave it high recognition. They generally agreed that the recommendations represent another significant programmatic document in the history of the Party. With clear goals, precise guidance and pragmatic measures, the document serves as a mobilization order for advancing Chinese modernization and will exert a profound and far-reaching influence on the Party and the nation's future development.

China's economic foundation stable

Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, introduced that the recommendations set clear major objectives for the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

The focus, he said, will be on achieving significant achievements in high-quality development; reaching substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance and strength; fresh breakthroughs in further deepening reform comprehensively; realizing notable cultural and ethical progress across society; achieving further improvements in quality of life; reaching major new strides in advancing the Beautiful China Initiative; and making further advances in strengthening the national security shield.

Han said these priorities reflect China's determination to translate the grand vision of socialist modernization into concrete action, ensuring steady progress toward the goals set for 2035.

China's economy is underpinned by a stable foundation, multiple advantages, strong resilience, and great potential; and the supporting conditions and fundamental trends for long-term sound economic development have not changed, he said.

China's development has entered a period where strategic opportunities, risks and challenges are concurrent, with increasing uncertainties and unpredictable factors, Han noted, adding that as the world today is undergoing major changes, China meets multiple favorable factors for shaping the external environment.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is imperative to give full play to the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, and the advantages of the country's super-sized market and its complete industrial system to transform these advantages into actual effectiveness of high-quality development, he added.

Boosting domestic demand

Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, stressed the importance of strengthening the domestic economic base, vowing to boost internal demand and build a unified national market in the next five years.

Commenting on the significance of building a strong internal market, Zheng said major economies are driven by domestic demand, and markets are the world's most scarce resource. It bears strategic importance in the drive of basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035.

The document says China will take initiatives to drive spending, promote greater use of services, and upgrade the commodity market, Zheng said.

It also asks to utilize government funds in key areas regarding people's livelihoods, and increase the proportion of government investment in livelihood-related areas, Zheng added.  

Noting on the importance of building a unified national market, Zheng said China has further streamlined its market access negative list, reducing the number of restricted fields to 106 across 21 industries in 2025 down from 328.

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will build a united national market and remove market barriers, Zheng said. Measures include unifying the underlying institutions and rules of the market, breaking down local protectionism and market segmentation, standardizing local government economic activities, strengthening market supervision and law enforcement, and addressing the so-called involution-style competition.

More high-tech industries

Zheng also said China will create more high-tech industries over the next decade with emerging sectors driving future growth. Building on and reinforcing the foundations of the real economy, China will focus on four key priorities; consolidation and upgrade of traditional industries, fostering emerging and future industries, quality improvements, and completing the modernization of infrastructure.

Recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan call for building new strategic industries and accelerating the development of industrial clusters in new energy, new materials, aviation and aerospace, and the low-altitude economy, which are forecast to give rise to several trillion-yuan or even larger scale markets, said Zheng.

In 2024, China's "three new" economies, comprising new industries, new business formats and new business models, added a value of more than 18 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Planning for the future, weight is placed on industries about to take off such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, 6G mobile communications as new quality drivers of economic growth.

A series of major national science and technology plans will be put into action with priority in national strategic needs, added Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Yin Hejun at the press conference.

Original innovation and decisive breakthroughs in key core technologies across critical fields, including integrated circuits, industrial mother machines and high-end instruments, are expected through a full-chain approach.

This approach centers around strengthening the strategic, forward-looking, and systematic planning of basic research, with increased long-term and stable support, emphasizing original innovation in scientific research and technological development, aiming to produce more landmark original achievements.

Expanding opening up

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said during the conference that China will actively expand opening up over the next five years.

Wang said China should proactively align with international high-standard economic and trade rules and expand market access and the scope of opening up, with a focus on the service sector.

China will accelerate regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements and expand the network of high-standard free trade zones, Wang added.

The Chinese commerce minister also said China will promote the innovative development of trade by encouraging market diversification in goods trade, improving the management system for negative lists in cross-border service trade, and expanding opening up in the field of digital trade in an orderly manner.

Wang also stressed efforts to expand bilateral investment cooperation.

He added that effective implementation of foreign investment management will be pursued, along with improvements to the comprehensive overseas service system and guidance for the rational and orderly cross-border arrangement of production and supply chains.

Regarding high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, Wang said China will strengthen alignment with the strategic plans of participating countries, promote key landmark projects and "small and beautiful" livelihood projects, deepen practical cooperation in trade, investment, industry and culture, and expand cooperation in areas such as green development, digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

Raising average life expectancy

China aims to raise the average life expectancy of its people to around 80 years through efforts in the five-year period from 2026 to 2030, said Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission.

Regarding the high-quality development of population, the recommendations focus on three aspects including building a childbirth-friendly society, promoting elderly care, and encouraging active aging, Lei noted.

Efforts will focus on building a childbearing-friendly society, fostering positive attitudes toward marriage and childbirth, refining the government's supportive and incentive policies, and strengthening the combined role of measures such as childcare subsidies and individual income tax deductions, he said.

He called for efforts to improve the policy mechanism for the coordinated development of the elderly care industries, optimize the supply of basic elderly care services and develop integrated medical and elderly care services.

It is necessary to steadily and orderly implement gradual retirement age increase, optimize age restriction policies in areas such as employment and social security, and develop the silver economy.

Lei noted that public health and population services will prioritize the elderly, women, and children while also providing comprehensive, full-cycle services – covering prevention, health promotion, treatment, and rehabilitation – for all. Together, the efforts will help build a solid health and demographic foundation for Chinese modernization.