Dong Yu: Make Good Use of the Valuable Experience Gained from Formulating and Implementing Five-Year Plans
General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the opening ceremony of a study session for principal officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, focusing on the implementation of the guiding principles from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee. He systematically expounded on the great significance of formulating and implementing Five-Year Plans, provided an in-depth elaboration on comprehensively, profoundly, and accurately understanding and grasping the strategic deployments of the Plenary Session, and put forward clear requirements for focusing on improving the Party's ability and level to lead economic and social development. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, through the continuous development during the periods of the 12th, 13th, and 14th Five-Year Plans, our Party has successfully advanced and expanded Chinese-path modernization. The new journey toward the Second Centenary Goal has achieved a good start, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has become an unstoppable force. At the opening ceremony, General Secretary Xi Jinping summarized our experience using the "Five Persistences," noting that "in the long-term practice of formulating and implementing Five-Year Plans, our Party has created and accumulated rich experience, including persisting in the CPC Central Committee's centralized and unified leadership, persisting in proceeding from reality, persisting in the national 'chess game' [1] approach, persisting in promoting democracy and drawing on collective wisdom, and persisting in the principle of the statutory nature of plans." To deeply study and understand the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech, we must accurately grasp and utilize the precious experience of the "Five Persistences," scientifically plan and draw a new blueprint for development, and ensure a good opening and steady start for the 15th Five-Year Plan, thereby continuing to write new chapters of the "two miracles" of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.
Persisting in the CPC Central Committee’s Centralized and Unified Leadership
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "For such a large Party and such a large country as ours, if the CPC Central Committee cannot implement strong and effective centralized and unified leadership, a situation will arise where everyone acts on their own and goes their own way, and then nothing will get done." Persisting in the CPC Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership is the fundamental basis for our continuous victories and provides the fundamental guarantee for the formulation and implementation of Five-Year Plans.
Since the founding of New China, from the 1st to the 14th Five-Year Plan, the formulation and implementation of these plans have always persisted in the Party's leadership, fully implemented the Party's line, principles, and policies, and made phased deployments and arrangements for socialist modernization within the planning periods. After years of exploration, we have formed a set of standardized procedures and practices in practice: the CPC Central Committee puts forward "Recommendations" (建议) for the plan, pointing out the direction and setting the tone for its formulation; the State Council, based on these recommendations, organizes relevant departments to compile the "Outline Draft" (纲要草案), detailing the contents of the Central Committee's recommendations into specific indicators, tasks, and measures; finally, it is submitted to the National People's Congress for review and approval before being announced to the public for implementation, making the Five-Year Plan a common program of action for all the people. Through institutionalized methods, the Five-Year Plan transforms the CPC Central Committee's centralized and unified leadership into governance practice, providing a fundamental guarantee for socialist modernization.
Since the New Era began, General Secretary Xi Jinping has personally planned, deployed, and promoted national development planning work, serving as the head of the drafting group for the recommendations on the plans. The 13th Five-Year Plan used the New Development Philosophy as its main thread for layout, reflecting our Party's political stance and value orientation on major development issues. The 14th Five-Year Plan took "grounding ourselves in the new development stage, implementing the new development philosophy, and constructing a new development pattern" as its logical main thread, reflecting the Party's profound thinking on future development.
The recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan are laid out around the Party’s central task on the new journey in the New Era. Throughout the text, they implement the systematic planning and deployments for Chinese-path modernization made at the 20th CPC National Congress, fully reflecting the CPC Central Committee's new ideas and intentions for promoting economic and social development. For example, centered on developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, the plan makes systematic deployments for accelerating high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and strength. it requires coordinating the construction of a leading country in education, science and technology, and human resources, enhancing the overall efficiency of the national innovation system, comprehensively strengthening independent innovation capabilities, and seizing the commanding heights of technological development. Important deployments in the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations regarding expanding internal demand and building a strong domestic market were detailed as key tasks for this year's economic work at the Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year, becoming important focus points for achieving a good start for the 15th Five-Year Plan. Meanwhile, the recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan highlight the persistence in and strengthening of the CPC Central Committee’s centralized and unified leadership, improving the Party's ability and level to lead economic and social development, and continuously using the Party's innovative theories to unify thoughts, will, and actions.
Through the overall planning of economic and social development, the Five-Year Plan has become one of the important means for the CPC Central Committee to "keep the direction, look at the big picture, set policies, and promote reform" [2]. It effectively transforms the Party's propositions into the national will and the collective action of the entire society, stimulating the vitality of the whole society for entrepreneurship, innovation, and creation.
Persisting in Proceeding from Reality
At the opening ceremony of the study session for principal officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, General Secretary Xi Jinping provided a profound exposition on the "correct view of political achievements" [3], requiring us to "persist in proceeding from reality and act according to objective laws." Our country has a vast territory with different conditions and endowments in various places; at the same time, current development faces a grim and complex domestic and international environment. Only by persisting in proceeding from reality and integrating theory with practice can we obtain truthful knowledge that correctly reflects objective laws and formulate scientific decisions that conform to those laws. This also clarifies the basic focal point for the formulation and implementation of Five-Year Plans.
Persisting in proceeding from reality is reflected in the fact that the planning process is also a process of in-depth investigation and research and scientific demonstration. The compilation of Five-Year Plans attaches great importance to the pragmatism of goals and tasks, realizing specific guidance for plan implementation by transforming macro goals into measurable and evaluable indicators. During the drafting stage of the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations, the CPC Central Committee organized six research groups to conduct specialized investigations in 12 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities; it commissioned relevant departments, units, and think tanks to conduct 35 key research projects on major economic and social development issues. The 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations both fully consider changes in the economic situation, clarifying a baseline for steady growth, and highlight the orientation of developing new quality productive forces. Based on new trends in industrial development, they propose several new requirements to drive technological innovation and industrial progress. They both highlight the value orientation of putting the people first, increasing efforts to guarantee and improve people's livelihoods, and highlight a green and low-carbon orientation, strengthening deployments to actively and steadily promote and achieve carbon peaking, internalizing the requirements for continuous improvement of ecological environment quality into development goals. It is precisely on the basis of going deep into reality and conducting extensive research that the guiding principles of the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations are scientific and precise, the main goals are clear and distinct, and the tasks and measures are realistic and pragmatic.
Persisting in proceeding from reality is also reflected in the fact that the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations' guidance for local development emphasizes categorized policies and categorized advancement, avoiding generalizations or hollow abstractions. For example, key measures in the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations—such as improving the regional innovation system, creating diverse forms of "open highlands," [4] and improving rural construction implementation mechanisms according to local conditions—contain the idea of pursuing development based on local circumstances. By using "one key for one lock," [5] local governments can both serve and integrate into the overall national development situation while closely combining it with their own reality. This provides an important follow-up for practicing a correct view of political achievements and implementing the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee in light of actual conditions. It can effectively prevent problems that may arise in planning, such as being detached from reality, blindly following trends, layer-by-layer pressure [6], impetuous advancement, simple "outsourcing," and shoddy workmanship.
Persisting in the National "Chess Game" Approach
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must firmly establish the idea of a nationwide 'chess game.' Planning and promoting the work of one's own region or department must take the implementation of the CPC Central Committee's decisions and deployments as the premise. Work creatively so as to both add luster to one's own area and contribute to the overall situation." Five-Year Plans possess prominent comprehensiveness and totality, with unified deployments on a national scale. Persisting in a national "chess game" clarifies the layout principles for the formulation and implementation of Five-Year Plans.
Through the unified arrangement of key areas and major tasks, the Five-Year Plan establishes priorities for resource allocation, enabling the state to concentrate its forces in key periods and important fields to promote major projects and reform tasks of a global and foundational nature. For example, since the 18th CPC National Congress, through the implementation of 165 major engineering projects in the 13th Five-Year Plan and 102 in the 14th, we concentrated our forces to win the battle against poverty, historically solving the problem of absolute poverty. We integrated superior scientific and technological resources, carried out joint research on key core technologies, and significantly accelerated the pace of achieving high-level technological self-reliance and strength, with our Global Innovation Index ranking jumping to tenth place. Another example is that recent Five-Year Plans have attached great importance to the development and protection of national space. By clarifying the layout of new-type urbanization, agricultural and rural development, and ecological security, they strengthen the spatial attributes of planning, promote the coordinated development of the economy, population, resources, and environment, and lay a solid foundation for the layout of productive forces. Fully leveraging the powerful driving role of this series of major engineering projects can both provide support for expanding internal demand and stabilizing economic operations at present, and help accumulate new momentum and cultivate competitiveness for future development.
The recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan persist in the national "chess game," coordinating all regions, departments, and fields. For example, in terms of building a strong domestic market, by regulating the economic promotion behavior of local governments and breaking down local protectionism and market fragmentation, they guide changes in the way local governments promote development. At the same time, they persist in the strategic pivot of expanding internal demand, and the close integration of benefiting livelihoods with promoting consumption, and investing in "things" with investing in "people," so that the ultra-large-scale market continues to become an important advantage for China's development. Regarding regional layout, the plan optimizes the combination of regional strategies, emphasizing the overlapping effects of coordinated regional development strategies, major regional strategies, main functional zone strategies, and new-type urbanization strategies. This is conducive to optimizing the layout of major productive forces and better promoting coordinated development between East, Central, and West, and North and South, using a systems perspective.
Persisting in the national "chess game"—by integrating forces from all parties, coordinating various interests, and unifying all tasks, while encouraging all regions, departments, and fields to carry out work creatively—can truly ensure that the CPC Central Committee's decisions and deployments take root and achieve results, forming a vivid pattern where all regions, departments, and fields complement each other’s advantages and develop in tandem.
Persisting in Promoting Democracy and Drawing on Collective Wisdom
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Promoting democracy, drawing on collective wisdom, and extensively listening to opinions from all sides is a consistent practice and fine tradition of the CPC Central Committee when researching major issues and formulating important documents." The compilation of Five-Year Plans concerns the national economy and people's livelihoods, involves all aspects of economic and social development, and is closely related to the production and life of the masses. The process of compiling a Five-Year Plan is a process of extensively promoting democracy, concentrating the wisdom of the whole Party and the whole country, and listening to voices from all sides. Integrating the strengthening of top-level design with persisting in "asking the people for their ideas" [7], persisting in promoting democracy and drawing on collective wisdom, and encouraging the broad masses and all sectors of society to offer suggestions through various means has become a distinct feature and precious experience of Five-Year Plan compilation.
To prepare for the compilation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited rural households, entered enterprises, and walked through industrial parks to observe the people's conditions and ask for good strategies. He successively presided over symposiums in Zhejiang, Guizhou, and Jilin, listening to the opinions and suggestions of the principal leading comrades of 18 provinces. To prepare for the 14th Five-Year Plan, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over seven specialized symposiums, gathering and interacting sincerely with experts, scholars, members of "new social strata" [8], truck drivers, and migrant workers.
The drafting of the 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations is likewise a process of "opening the door to solicit advice" and pooling wisdom and strength. The CPC Central Committee has integrated the promotion of democracy and the drawing on of collective wisdom throughout the entire process of document drafting, extensively soliciting opinions from all sides. In January 2025, the CPC Central Committee issued the "Notice on Soliciting Opinions on the Recommendations for the 15th Five-Year Plan to be Researched at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee," seeking opinions within a certain scope inside and outside the Party. General Secretary Xi Jinping gave important instructions on the compilation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, requiring us to "persist in scientific, democratic, and law-based decision-making" and "extensively condense consensus, listen to the opinions and suggestions of the masses and all sectors of society in various ways, and fully absorb the fresh experiences created by cadres and the masses in practice." General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over a symposium in Shanghai on economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period for some provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, listening to the opinions of the principal responsible comrades from seven provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. He also commissioned central leading comrades to successively preside over three symposiums to hear the views of representatives from the economic and technological sectors as well as grassroots representatives. The 15th Five-Year Plan compilation work also included an online opinion solicitation activity, receiving a total of over 3.113 million suggestions from netizens.
The process of compiling Five-Year Plans persists in promoting democracy, opening doors to solicit advice, and drawing on collective wisdom. By extensively absorbing opinions and suggestions from all sectors of society and building the greatest policy consensus, it has become a vivid manifestation of intra-Party democracy and whole-process people’s democracy, allowing "what the Party and government want to do" to resonate on the same frequency as "what the people hope for in their hearts." Precisely for this reason, the Five-Year Plan centrally reflects the common development vision of all the people, gathering a powerful force to promote Chinese-path modernization.
Persisting in the Principle of the Statutory Nature of Plans
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out:
"Exercise the strategic guiding role of national development plans" and "improve the national strategic planning system and the mechanism for policy coordination." The implementation of national development plans fully embodies the organic unity [9] of upholding the Party’s leadership, the people being masters of the country, and the law-based governance of the country—this represents a significant advantage of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Adhering to the principle of "planning by law" provides a legal guarantee for the formulation and implementation of Five-Year Plans.
The development of the planning system, with the national development plan at its core, is closely linked to the process of institutionalizing planning within the rule of law. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the types of plans (originally "programs") in our country have gradually increased, and the hierarchy of plans has become increasingly clear. Currently, China is establishing and improving a national planning system led by national development plans, based on spatial planning, supported by sectoral and regional plans, and composed of national, provincial, and municipal/county-level plans. This system features accurate positioning, clear boundaries, complementary functions, and unified connectivity. Horizontally, major spatial layouts are implemented through spatial planning, deployments for various sectors are refined through specialized sectoral plans, and tasks spanning administrative regions are coordinated through regional planning. Vertically, by strengthening guidance over the compilation of local Five-Year Plans, the quality and level of local planning are enhanced, ensuring the effective implementation of national development tasks. In recent years, we have placed special emphasis on the leading role of planning, policy coordination, and operational synergy, adhering to the principle that "planning sets the direction, finance provides the guarantee, banking offers support, and other policies coordinate." by decomposing the main indicators of the national development plan into the annual indicator system and ensuring balance between years, we have formed a systematic advancement and closed-loop implementation mechanism of "long-term strategy—development plan—annual program."
Adhering to the principle of planning by law and codifying mature practices into legal systems to guide and guarantee the construction of a unified planning system is beneficial in two ways. First, it helps maintain the internal consistency of the planning system, strengthens the consistency of macro-policy orientation, and forms planning synergy. Second, it facilitates the further improvement of the implementation guarantee mechanism for national development plans, providing institutional support to better leverage their strategic guiding role. Currently, the legislative process for national development planning is continuously advancing, and the construction of China’s planning legal framework will enter a new stage. Using the rule of law to lead and guarantee the construction of a unified planning system will better transform our country’s institutional advantages into national governance efficacy.
The scientific summarization of the "Five Upholds" [10] valuable experience further enriches and develops General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on development strategies and planning, raising our Party's understanding of the laws governing medium- and long-term development planning to a new height. Looking at the world, how to properly handle the relationship between short-term development and medium-to-long-term development has always been a global challenge. General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions on development strategies and planning have enriched and perfected the theories of development planning, realized a systematic construction from strategic plotting to strategic implementation, and deepened our Party's understanding of the laws of governance by a Communist Party, the laws of socialist construction, and the laws of the development of human society [11]. These insights represent an important theoretical crystallization of the Political Economy of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. They are also a major contribution to the theory of global development economics, providing not only scientific guidance for China’s economic and social development but also valuable experience and important reference for developing countries exploring development paths suited to their own conditions.
In the New Era and on the new journey, we must strengthen our confidence in our system, firmly grasp and utilize the valuable experience of the "Five Upholds," comprehensively and accurately comprehend the decision-making deployments of the Party Central Committee, accurately grasp the general trends of development, scientifically plan goals and tasks, precisely formulate policy measures, and pragmatically make specific arrangements. We must continuously enhance the forward-looking, guiding, and innovative nature of our planning, injecting strong momentum into promoting major breakthroughs in strategic tasks concerning the overall situation of Chinese-path modernization and ensuring decisive progress in basically achieving socialist modernization.