China plans for high quality development in 2026-2030

China’s success in high-tech industries can be largely attributed to its long-term strategic planning, particularly the ‘Made in China 2025’ initiative launched by Xi Jinping in 2015.

- B.R. DEEPAK

The fourth plenary session in Beijing. Photo courtesy: Xinhua

(Xinhua)

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded on October 23, 2025, reviewed the work report delivered by Xi Jinping on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and adopted the “Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.”

According to the communique issued at the close of the session, the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) was characterized as a momentous and exceptional phase in China's developmental trajectory, while the forthcoming 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) was identified as a critical stage for realizing the goal of socialist modernization by 2035.

The session reaffirmed Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the Party's leadership and emphasized the guiding role of "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.” It underscored the significance of the “two affirmations” and the “two safeguards,” which were incorporated into the Party Constitution during the 20th National Congress, as the institutional foundation for maintaining unified Party authority.

This reaffirmation consolidates Xi's central role in the Party-led governance system and links the concept of “self-revolution”—manifested through anti-corruption campaigns, disciplinary rectitude, and internal cohesion—to the broader objective of national modernization. This linkage is exemplified by the appointment of Zhang Shengmin as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the CPC, alongside the purging of several senior military officials, including He Weidong, Miao Hua, He Hongjun, Wang Xiubin, Lin Xiangyang, Qin Shutong, Yuan Huazhi, Wang Chun-ning, and Zhang Fengzhong.