The central committee of China’s ruling Communist Party has officially announced proposals for national development for the next five years — from 2021 to 2025. Importantly, Beijing sets these economic targets and social priorities every five years. For instance, this year’s discussion is devoted to the 14th plan. Curiously enough, this is not the Soviet practice to make a plan that has to be implemented. Usually, a plan serves as mere guidance. However, China is striving to complete all the tasks and even outperform them.
Naturally, economic development in the modern world is dependent on the state of the world economy. This is why when making a plan, a country should take into account the development of its own economy as well as the global one. Even China with its vast population and resources is no exception. With a cohesive economic plan, it is much easier to achieve the necessary goals. The new five-year plan will focus on China's main strategic goals — to become the world's largest economy and a high-income society in the coming decade. The main feature of the upcoming 14th five-year plan will be the so-called double circulation strategy. In a nutshell, China intends to achieve staggering performance in the commodity market and money circulation in the domestic consumer market while maintaining and expanding exports. The country is trying to ease its reliance on the outside world amid an increasingly hostile external environment. Moreover, China is preparing to move from an export-investment economic model of growth to the one that includes the expansion of the domestic consumer market. This economic model will help the country sustain stable growth even amid a shrinking global economy, external risks, sanctions, and trade wars.
“China’s economy needs to continue to develop. If exports decline (as a result of shrinking global demand), then they will be consumed domestically,” Justin Yifu Lin, a counselor to China’s top executive body, the State Council, said.
