Zhong Caiwen: Deeply Grasp the "Five Musts" and Promote a Good Start for the 15th Five-Year Plan
At the Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized the practices of recent years and proposed a systematic understanding of the laws governing economic work under the new situation: we must fully tap into economic potential; we must persist in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation; we must achieve the state of being both "dynamic without chaos" [1] and "well-regulated"; we must persist in the close integration of investment in physical objects and investment in people; and we must respond to external challenges by diligently tempering our internal strength. The connotations of these "Five Musts" are profound; they constitute both a scientific summary of past practical experience and a scientific guide for future economic and social development, further enriching and developing Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought. The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period (2026–2030) is a critical stage for consolidating the foundation and fully exerting strength to basically realize socialist modernization. This year is the starting year for the transition toward the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan," and a good start is half the battle. We must properly learn, comprehend, and implement the important requirements of the "Five Musts," strengthen our confidence, overcome difficulties, and strive to achieve the economic and social development goals and tasks for the entire year, ensuring that the "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" starts and steps off on the right foot.
I. We must fully tap into economic potential
Fully tapping into economic potential is vital for continuously consolidating the material foundation of Chinese-path modernization. China is a major economic and demographic power. An essential characteristic of a large-country economy is its vast room for maneuver and its potential for internal circulation. We must make full use of our country’s multiple economic advantages, accelerate the transformation of quality, efficiency, and drivers of growth, and strive to cultivate more new growth points. By expanding from these points to broader areas, we can open new spaces for development and provide a powerful impetus for high-quality development.
As the world's second-largest economy, China possesses several distinctive features. Broad market depth ensures internal circulation. "The Chinese economy is an ocean, not a small pond" [2]; its volume is sufficiently large, its system sufficiently complete, and its diversity of demand and supply is strong. The effects of economies of scale, economies of scope, and network economies are conspicuous. Production, distribution, circulation, and consumption achieve efficient linkage and optimal resource allocation primarily within the country, allowing us to respond calmly to various risks and challenges. A propitious innovation ecosystem ensures that science and technology can achieve self-reliance and self-strengthening. Looking at previous scientific and technological revolutions and industrial transformations, large countries possess sufficient innovation resources, room for trial and error, and application scenarios; they are positioned to lead global economic trends and dominate the global industrial division of labor. As a major economic, technological, and industrial power, China possesses a relatively complete innovation and industrial ecosystem, enabling it to nurture independent technical systems, control key links in industrial chains, and achieve high-level self-reliance and self-strengthening. Strong advantages in industrial and supply chains ensure the ability to influence the global economic and trade landscape. China ranks first globally in trade in goods and second in trade in services; it is both a global "super-buyer" and "super-seller," serving as a major trading partner for over 150 countries and regions. Currently, as a small number of countries pursue unilateralism and protectionism, China’s status in the global economy becomes increasingly important. It is a key force influencing the global economic landscape and has the capacity to proactively shape a just and reasonable international order.
China is the world's largest developing country and possesses many advantages. The system of socialism with Chinese characteristics injects the greatest degree of certainty into the Chinese economy. Under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, the Chinese economy has withstood the severe impact of the pandemic of the century, effectively responded to risks and challenges such as external containment and suppression, and strengthened counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments [3] to address downward economic pressure, remaining the largest contributor and stabilizing anchor for world economic growth. An ultra-large-scale market is the "ballast stone" of China’s economic development. With a population of over 1.4 billion, China is one of the world's largest and most potential-rich consumer markets. A large number of Chinese brands in fields such as new energy vehicles, smartphones, white goods, and trendy toys have grown strong in the domestic market and moved abroad, becoming new "calling cards" for the Chinese economy. A complete industrial system is the ultimate source of confidence for the Chinese economy to brave the winds and waves. The scale of China's manufacturing has ranked first in the world for more than ten consecutive years, and it possesses the world's most complete manufacturing system. Faced with the trend of global economic "fragmentation," Chinese manufacturing is not only the foundation and resilience of its own economic development but also an indispensable "stabilizer" for international industrial and supply chains. A workforce of high-quality laborers and entrepreneurs provides the source of vitality for the innovative development of the Chinese economy. China’s total human resources exceed 220 million people, and the number of high-level scientific and technological talents ranks among the top in the world, with the ranks of outstanding entrepreneurs continuing to grow. Whether it is "Great Power Heavy Equipment" [4] such as domestically produced large aircraft and electromagnetic catapult aircraft carriers, or phenomenal new technologies and products like DeepSeek and the game Black Myth: Wukong, the figures of a vast number of Chinese young scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs are active behind them. They are the greatest source of lifeblood for the Chinese economy.
We must exert synergistic force across the entire chain and in multiple dimensions to transform economic potential into actual efficacy for high-quality development. We must vigorously boost consumption and expand effective investment to deeply tap the potential of domestic demand. The household consumption rate in China is about 40%; compared with developed countries, there is room for an increase of 10–20 percentage points. Per capita infrastructure stock holds growth potential of 4–5 times compared with developed countries. We must focus on cultivating more new growth points in the consumption of high-quality goods and services, and in both physical investment and investment in people. We must promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation to deeply tap innovation potential. China is a major pole of global innovation and an important contributor to human knowledge, possessing multiple advantages in seizing the strategic opportunities of the current round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. We must focus on expanding new technologies, products, and scenarios in the intelligent economy, green economy, bio-economy, and aerospace economy, creating several emerging pillar industries with high added value and strong leadership. We must promote urban-rural integration and coordinated regional development to deeply tap spatial potential. The quality and level of China's urbanization will continue to rise, agriculture will gradually develop into a major modern industry, rural areas will gradually acquire modern living conditions, and the development gap between regions will continue to narrow. We must unearth development potential while resolving the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development, and expand development space while guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods.
II. We must persist in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation
Policy support and reform-and-innovation are like the two wheels of a cart or the two wings of a bird—they complement each other and neither can be dispensed with. To promote high-quality economic development, we need both effective policies and forceful reforms, synergistically promoting macro-control and the deepening of reform to ensure that high-quality development continuously achieves new results.
Persisting in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation is a practical lesson from macroeconomic governance in the New Era. Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, facing a profoundly changing domestic and international environment, the Party Central Committee made the major judgment that our country's economic development has entered a "New Normal" [5]. It has persisted in "grasping with both hands" [6]—strengthening macro-control while comprehensively deepening reform—writing a new chapter in the twin miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability. On the one hand, we have innovated and improved macro-control, strengthening counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments. We focus on making good use of the twin tools of fiscal and monetary policy, leveraging the roles of policies concerning industry, prices, employment, consumption, and investment. We enhance the consistency of macro-policy orientation, deeply promote supply-side structural reform, focus on expanding domestic demand, promote dynamic balance between supply and demand, and keep economic operations within a reasonable range. On the other hand, we persist in comprehensively deepening reform to mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of all parties. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee set off the new journey of comprehensively deepening reform and promoting reform through systematic and integral design in the New Era. Reforms in many fields such as fiscal and taxation, finance, science and technology, and ecology have been comprehensively deepened. The basic institutional frameworks for various fields have been essentially established, and many fields have achieved historical transformations, systematic reshaping, and overall reconstruction. In practice, we adapted to the situational characteristics of the "period of three overlapping factors" [7], focused on winning the "Three Tough Battles" [8], and effectively responded to the impact of the pandemic of the century and risks such as external suppression and containment. We have explored a path of macroeconomic governance that pairs policy support with reform-and-innovation, creating a new situation for the construction of Chinese-path modernization.
Persisting in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation is the inevitable choice for cracking the multiple difficult problems of economic and social development. At present, cyclical, structural, and institutional problems in our country’s economic development are intertwined. From the perspective of the economic cycle, global economic growth momentum is insufficient, recovery is weak, and external demand faces significant uncertainty and instability. Domestically, the contradiction of "strong supply and weak demand" is prominent, and the virtuous cycle of the national economy faces many choke points and roadblocks. From the perspective of the economic structure, our country is still in a critical period of transitioning between old and new growth drivers. The supply of some high-quality goods and services is insufficient, while supply exceeds demand in some traditional industries. Demographic changes pose new challenges to economic development and social governance, and the problem of unbalanced urban-rural and regional development remains prominent. From the perspective of the economic system, the market-based allocation of factors of production is not yet sufficient, the construction of a unified national market still requires more effort, the business environment in some areas needs continuous optimization, and the vitality of some market entities has not been fully released. These problems are intertwined and overlapping; there is no "panacea" that can solve them all. we must apply comprehensive measures, synergistically promoting policy support and reform-and-innovation to strive for maximum efficacy.
Persisting in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation requires achieving the organic integration of short-term macro-control with medium- and long-term institutional building. Macro-policy focuses on counter-cyclical adjustment and short-term "fever reduction and pain relief" to stabilize the overall economic situation. However, if support from reform measures is lacking, the policy effect will gradually diminish and may even lead the economy to develop "policy dependency." Reform-and-innovation are dedicated to breaking down institutional and mechanistic obstacles for long-term "physical strengthening" and enhancing endogenous economic momentum, but they are often accompanied by the "growing pains" of adjustment. If there is no policy floor to stabilize the basic economic situation, reform will be difficult to promote sustainably and effectively. We must organically combine short-term macro-control with medium- and long-term institutional building. On the one hand, we must strengthen counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustments, implement more proactive macro-policies, continuously stabilize growth, employment, and expectations, and create favorable conditions for reform. On the other hand, we must place reform in an even more prominent position, using economic structural reform as the lead. We must further comprehensively deepen reform by focusing closely on advancing Chinese-path modernization, resolutely breaking down institutional and mechanistic defects in all aspects, mobilizing the enthusiasm of local governments and enterprises, and promoting the formation of an economic development model dominated by domestic demand, driven by consumption, and fueled by endogenous growth. Only when policy "blood transfusions" and reform "blood-making" [9] function synergistically can we achieve the organic unity of "short-term stability" and "long-term health."
Persisting in the simultaneous advancement of policy support and reform-and-innovation requires enhancing the consistency and effectiveness of macro-policies. In synergistically promoting policy support and reform-and-innovation, we must pay more attention to "resonating on the same frequency" and moving in the same direction. We must strengthen a systems perspective. We must not only include economic and non-economic policies, as well as existing and incremental policies, into the consistency assessment of macro-policy orientation, but also strengthen the coordination of reform measures with macro-policies to avoid the effects of macro-policies and reform measures cancelling each other out, ensuring they exert force in the same direction and form a synergy. We must properly grasp the "timing, intensity, and efficacy" [10], improve scientific decision-making and assessment mechanisms, and timely adjust and optimize macro-policies and reform measures to ensure that policies do not "idle" and reforms do not "run on empty," providing a powerful impetus and institutional guarantee for promoting the sustained, steady, and positive development of the economy and the realization of high-quality development.
III. We must achieve being both "dynamic without chaos" and "well-regulated"
Handling the relationship between the government and the market is the core issue of economic structural reform. We must let the "invisible hand" of the market and the "visible hand" of the government each perform its duties, promoting the formation of an economic order that is both "dynamic without chaos" and "well-regulated," and continuously enhancing the motivation and vitality for high-quality development.
Coordinating the relationship between being "dynamic" and being "well-regulated" is an inevitable requirement for improving economic governance capacity. Persisting in the combination of an effective market and a promising government is an inherent requirement for building a high-level socialist market economy and a key factor in ensuring the continuous success of our country's economic development. The market deciding the allocation of resources is a general law of the market economy, and market allocation of resources is the most efficient form. We must fully leverage the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, promoting the free flow of goods and factor resources on a broader scale and continuously reducing institutional transaction costs. Better leveraging the role of the government is a prominent advantage of the socialist market economy system. Through scientific macro-control and effective government governance, we can effectively compensate for market failures, maintain a market order of fair competition, and stabilize and improve the expectations of all parties. Therefore, to accelerate the construction of a high-level socialist market economy system, we must coordinate the relationship between an effective market and a promising government, fully leverage the advantages of an ultra-large-scale market, and continuously improve the efficacy of macroeconomic governance, forming an economic order that is both "dynamic" and "well-regulated."
The purpose of "releasing" is to break down institutional and mechanistic obstacles affecting the development of productive forces and to fully stimulate the vitality of all types of market entities. In recent years, all regions and departments have conscientiously implemented the decision-making deployments of the CPC Central Committee, continuously transforming government management and service functions while striving to create a first-class market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. It must be clarified that "releasing" does not mean laissez-faire or total abdication of responsibility. Rather, it means effectively ensuring that the diverse forms of ownership in the economy can use production factors equally in accordance with the law, participate in market competition fairly, and receive equal legal protection, thereby promoting a dynamic where all ownership forms complement each other's strengths and develop together. We must deepen the reform of state-owned capital and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), promote the optimization of the layout and structural adjustment of the state-owned economy, and enhance the core functions and competitiveness of SOEs. We must develop and strengthen the private economy, refine supporting regulations and policies for the Private Economy Promotion Law, continuously stimulate private investment, and improve long-term mechanisms for private enterprises to participate in major national projects. We must also deepen the reform of systems and mechanisms for promoting foreign investment, shorten the negative list for foreign investment access, fully implement national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, and vigorously support their reinvestment within China.
"Regulating" targets behaviors that undermine market order or disturb market expectations; its fundamental requirement is the construction of a law-based economy. The rule of law is an inherent requirement and essential guarantee for building a high-level socialist market economy. "Regulating well" means better leveraging the role of the government to focus on correcting market failures and standardizing the order of market competition. Of course, "regulating" is not about tying hands or creating checkpoints to strangle activity; instead, it is about placing the rule of law in a more prominent position to build a market system that is unified, open, competitive, and orderly, while vigorously constructing a law-based and credit-based economy. Facing the flourishing development of new industries, formats, and models, we must accelerate the construction of the rule of law in fields such as the digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI) to better protect the legitimate rights of consumers while stimulating the innovative vitality of market entities. Addressing phenomena like malicious low-price dumping in certain sectors, we must thoroughly rectify "involutionary" [11] competition, promote quality-based pricing and healthy competition, and foster a sound market ecosystem. We must strengthen the management of production capacity in key industries, reinforce the leadership of standards and quality, and implement the exit of market entities in accordance with laws and regulations. We will continuously standardize administrative law enforcement and regulatory behavior regarding enterprises, resolutely preventing illegal cross-regional enforcement and profit-driven enforcement [12].
The key to testing whether we have achieved both "flexible local release" and "effective central regulation" lies in whether we have effectively promoted high-quality development. We must fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development philosophy, focusing on breaking down institutional and mechanistic barriers in areas such as building a unified national market, developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, and meeting the people’s needs for a better life. We must handle the relationship between an effective market and a proactive government, shifting economic development from "whether it exists" to "how good it is." Facing external uncertainties, we must further facilitate the domestic cycle [13], advance the construction of a unified national market in-depth, and form a synergy to promote high-quality development. We must clear the bottlenecks and blockages in the development of new quality productive forces, reinforce the dominant position of enterprises in innovation, improve the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields, and achieve high-level self-reliance and strength in science and technology. Focusing on solving the urgent, difficult, and anxious problems of the masses, we must strengthen the construction of inclusive, basic, and "safety-net" people's livelihoods, continuously enhancing the sense of gain, happiness, and security of the people.
IV. We must persist in the close integration of investing in physical objects and investing in people
The ultimate goal of economic development is to improve the well-being of the people and achieve well-rounded human development. Persistent focus on the close integration of investing in physical objects and investing in people represents a comprehensive update of investment concepts and a thorough optimization of investment priorities. This is of great significance for enhancing developmental momentum, expanding domestic demand, and promoting well-rounded human development.
Investment is an important engine for economic and social development, and different stages of development have different investment priorities. In the initial stage of a country's modernization, constrained by capital shortages, it often prioritizes investment in "objects" (physical capital), laying a material and technical foundation for economic and social development through heavy investment in raw materials, infrastructure, factories, and equipment. As physical capital continues to "accumulate," the overall rate of return on such investment tends to decline, and the momentum of economic development gradually shifts from incremental expansion to improving quality and efficiency. Entering a new stage of development, we can no longer follow the old path of factor-driven and investment-led growth. Instead, we must turn toward innovation-driven and demand-led growth, accelerating the accumulation of human capital by increasing investment in "people," collaboratively achieving technological progress and improvement in livelihoods, and building long-term competitiveness for economic development.
Investing in physical objects should focus on the real economy and technological innovation, expanding space and releasing potential. After years of development, the "family estate" [14] of China's physical assets has become more substantial, but there is still a significant gap in per capita capital investment compared to developed countries. For instance, the per capita infrastructure stock is only 20% to 30% of that in developed countries. The structural composition of capital stock still needs further optimization and upgrading. Investment is insufficient in some important industrial fields, and key core technologies remain subject to external constraints. Many existing stocks of machinery, infrastructure, old residential communities, and underground pipe networks need to be updated. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is also driving the rapid emergence of massive new investment needs, with strong demand in key areas such as new quality productive forces. Overall, compared to the needs of Chinese-path modernization, there is still significant room for physical investment in our country. We must plan and implement a batch of highly influential major engineering projects in conjunction with the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposals, promote urban renewal with high quality, maintain a reasonable scale of material capital investment, optimize the investment layout, and expand effective investment in the real economy and technological innovation.
Investing in people should focus on improving livelihoods and developing human resources, highlighting priorities and applying precise force. Investing in people refers to the investment in enhancing the capabilities and developing the potential of the entire population throughout their life cycle—such as childcare, elderly care, health, education, and skills training. As China’s development stage changes, the importance and urgency of this are increasingly prominent. Compared to physical capital investment, China’s investment in social livelihoods and areas related to well-rounded human development is insufficient, with considerable room for improvement relative to developed countries. For example, although national fiscal expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP have remained above 4% for several consecutive years, they are lower than the 4.5%–5.5% average of developed countries; in 2024, total health expenditures as a percentage of GDP were 6.7%, significantly lower than in developed countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan. In the coming period, we must effectively transform our investment philosophy: we must "see the people" as much as "see the objects." We must improve long-term mechanisms for investing in people, expand effective investment covering the entire population and life cycle, and organically combine improving livelihoods with expanding domestic demand. We should cultivate new economic growth points while improving the people's well-being, providing foundational and strategic support for high-quality development and gaining strategic initiative in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.
Investing in physical objects and investing in people should provide mutual empowerment and promotion. Emphasizing investment in people by no means suggests that physical investment is no longer important. In fact, the accumulation of physical capital and human capital are not mutually exclusive or antagonistic; they complement and promote each other. On one hand, well-rounded human development is inseparable from investment in "objects." Building schools, hospitals, and supporting service facilities can improve the level of public services, which is conducive to guaranteeing and improving people's livelihoods and promoting human development. On the other hand, the efficiency enhancement and technological iteration of physical capital are even more dependent on investment in "people." New infrastructure investments, such as 5G networks and computing power centers, as well as the development of frontier fields like AI and biomedicine, are deeply tied to the cultivation of high-quality talent. In our work, we must establish a collaborative development orientation to coordinate the accumulation of material and human capital. For instance, when formulating industrial policies, we should simultaneously implement supporting measures to promote human capital development. We should establish a collaborative evaluation system for both physical and human investment, moving away from measuring investment effectiveness solely by increments in material capital to prevent the "focusing on objects but not people" disconnection. Private investment is not only a major force in physical investment but also a potential vanguard for investing in people. We must improve long-term mechanisms for private enterprises to participate in major projects, guiding private investment toward new tracks such as high technology and producer services. We should relax access, strengthen guidance, provide demonstrations, and lead private capital toward various fields of human resource development and well-rounded human development.
V. We must practice our "internal skills" to respond to external challenges
General Secretary Xi Jinping has emphasized: "No matter how the external environment changes, we must concentrate our strength on handling our own affairs well." Facing the accelerated evolution of changes unseen in a century, we must maintain strategic resolve and temper ourselves into an "indestructible golden body" [15], using the certainty of high-quality development to respond to the uncertainty of rapid changes in the external environment.
The greatest certainty in the international environment is that it is full of uncertain challenges. Today's world is a mix of change and disorder, with intensifying turbulence, and China’s development environment is facing profound and complex changes with increasing uncertain and unpredictable factors. Geopolitical conflicts are frequent and widespread; regional conflicts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America are protracted and have spillover effects, impacting the security of international transport routes and commodity prices. Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, and the international economic and trade order is facing severe challenges. According to World Trade Organization statistics, new trade barriers such as tariffs established by countries globally in 2025 will affect $2.7 trillion in goods trade—more than triple the amount in 2024—with trade barriers and frictions targeting China on the rise. A small number of Western countries cling to a Cold War mentality and zero-sum game concepts, viewing China as their primary strategic competitor and implementing all-around containment, suppression, and encirclement. Great power rivalry has become more complex and intense.
History proves that we possess powerful advantages in responding to external challenges. Since the founding of the People's Republic and especially since the launch of reform and opening up, our country has encountered many external risk shocks but has always managed to turn danger into safety. We have relied on maintaining strategic resolve and placing the focal point of development domestically. Facing the major shocks of the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis, we implemented a strategy of expanding domestic demand, promoting a shift in economic development toward being domestic demand-driven; the ratio of exports to GDP has dropped from about 34% in 2007 to approximately 19% today. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, we have persisted in the Party’s overall leadership and have persisted in and improved the basic socialist economic system. The total economic volume has continuously reached new levels, we have built the world’s most complete and largest industrial system, and risks in key areas have been continuously neutralized. Since the United States launched the trade war in 2018, the CPC Central Committee has responded calmly with systematic measures; the Chinese economy has consistently maintained development and progress, demonstrating a resilience that "grows stronger under pressure." Over these years, our door of opening up has opened wider; exports of goods have maintained strong resilience, a pattern of foreign trade diversification has accelerated, and dependence on exports to any single country has decreased, while institutional opening up has steadily expanded. Our capacity for scientific and technological innovation has grown stronger through struggle; suppression and containment have forced accelerated breakthroughs in key areas, leading to the mastery of a number of major key core technologies and the continuous improvement of the level of self-contained and controllable industrial chains. Our unique status as a "super seller" of manufactured goods has become increasingly prominent, and the international competitiveness of many investment and intermediate goods is so strong that no alternative sources can be found in the short term, providing strategic support for winning the initiative in international economic and trade struggles. Time and momentum are on our side. As long as we persist in focusing on national interests and long-term goals, unswervingly handle our own affairs well, and continuously grow our own strength, no external challenge can delay or even interrupt the great historical process of Chinese-path modernization.
We must enhance our powerful resilience in responding to external challenges. Opportunities are buried within changes, and challenges stimulate our will to fight.
In the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan [16], we must follow the requirements of the Central Economic Work Conference [17], give full play to our spirit of historical initiative, and utilize the advantage of a major power's broad economic depth to promote a successful start for the 15th Five-Year Plan. We must make the real economy stronger, better, and larger, and construct a modernized industrial system. We must consolidate and elevate the advantageous position of traditional industries, address structural contradictions by treating both symptoms and root causes [18], and accelerate the digital-intelligent transformation. We should strengthen the classified planning and guidance of emerging and future industries, and implement large-scale application demonstration actions for new technologies, products, and scenarios. We must tap into new points of economic growth while promoting the high-quality and efficient development of the service industry, and improve policies regarding market access, regulation, and opening up, adopting category-specific measures to promote the development of both producer and consumer services.
We must comprehensively enhance our capacity for independent innovation and accelerate high-level science and technology self-reliance and self-strengthening. It is necessary to improve the new-type whole-of-nation system [19], adopt extraordinary measures, and reverse as quickly as possible the situation in which key core technologies are controlled by others. We should increase long-term and stable support for basic research and strengthen the orientation toward original innovation in scientific research and technological development. We must reinforce the principal position of enterprises in innovation and promote the concentration of innovation resources within them. We must accelerate the building of a national strategic talent force and smooth the channels for talent exchange between universities, research institutes, and enterprises.
We must build a powerful domestic market and smooth the domestic and international dual circulation. In accordance with the requirements of "five unifications and one opening" [20], we must resolutely break through the bottlenecks and obstacles hindering the construction of a unified national market, and improve supporting systems for statistics, finance and taxation, and performance evaluation. We must persist in closely combining investment in physical objects with investment in people, strengthening the development of human resources and investment in the comprehensive development of the individual. We should vigorously promote increases in residents' income and the reduction of their burdens, expanding the supply of high-quality consumer goods and services. We must expand the diversification of export markets and promote the balanced development of imports and exports. We should proactively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, actively expand autonomous opening up, and create new advantages for attracting foreign investment.
The Chinese people do not go looking for trouble, but we are not afraid of it [21]. We have the full foundation, capability, and confidence to respond to external challenges, to concentrate on running our own affairs well, to achieve a successful start for the 15th Five-Year Plan, and to continuously advance the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation through Chinese-path modernization.
Source: People's Daily (January 13, 2026) Online Editor: Huihui