China’s Latest 5-Year Plan Will Be Watched By The World – OpEd |
By Andrew Hammond
The coming year will surely have some significant surprises in store, both politically and economically. However, one relatively predictable feature of the global landscape will be the launch of China’s new five-year plan, the 15th such iteration.
Beijing’s five-year plans have long been defining characteristics of not just the Chinese but also the wider international calendar. So, it is not only China, but much of the rest of the world, including the Middle East, which will be watching the blueprint for the nascent superpower’s development in the period to 2030.
This time frame may be a tumultuous period. This is not least with the second Trump presidency, which runs through to January 2029, potentially providing a historic context for the plan’s activation.
While the full details of the new plan will not be known until release, significant clues were provided at the Chinese Communist Party’s so-called fourth plenum last October. At the big event, the party leadership published a plan framework which will be formally approved in March during the National People’s Congress.
Several key elements are likely to be dialed up, including artificial intelligence. In the context of continued tensions with the US in areas such as computer chips, advanced software, rare earths, and magnets, the party decided at the plenum to focus the new plan on “substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance … and steer the development of new quality productive forces.”
The reference to “new quality........