Tang Yalin: Governance by Planning: Institutional Guarantee for Advancing Chinese Modernization
On March 12, 2026, the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) voted to pass the National Development Planning Law of the People's Republic of China, attracting broad attention from all sectors of society. The "15th Five-Year Plan" period [1] occupies a vital position in the process of achieving Chinese-path modernization, serving as a link between the past and the future. Guiding our country's economic and social development through the formulation of medium- and long-term plans—with the five-year plan at the core—is a major method by which Chinese-path modernization has created the "two miracles" of rapid economic development and long-term social stability under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It is also an important manifestation of the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
"Governance by planning" (规划治国) has become the dynamic mechanism for advancing Chinese-path modernization in a step-by-step progression. The Proposals of the Central Committee of the CPC for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, deliberated and adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, put forward a practical and forward-looking general logic, major principles, primary goals, and strategic tasks based on an accurate grasp of the major domestic and international development trends facing our country over the next five years.
A survey of the CPC's great practice in advancing Chinese-path modernization reveals that the compilation and implementation of medium- and long-term plans has become a historical main thread running through the Party's governance activities, while governance by planning has become the dynamic mechanism for the step-by-step advancement of Chinese-path modernization. From the launch of the "1st Five-Year Plan" in 1953 to the conclusion of the "14th Five-Year Plan" in 2025, and then to the commencement of the "15th Five-Year Plan" in 2026, our country has compiled and successively implemented 15 five-year plans. These have effectively promoted the distribution of national productive forces and the process of industrialization, the integrated development of economy and society, and the improvement of the people's standard of living. They have successfully transformed an impoverished and backward agricultural country into a nation whose Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has long ranked second in the world.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the practice of governance by planning led by the CPC has passed through different stages of development. The Exploratory Foundation Phase of governance by planning spanned five periods from the "1st Five-Year Plan" in 1953 to the "5th Five-Year Plan" in 1976. Its main task was to construct the economic base for Chinese-path modernization. Through the relay-style construction of these first five plans, our country basically formed a relatively complete industrial system and national economic system, building the "four beams and eight pillars" [2] development framework for socialist modernization. The Transition and Adjustment Phase spanned five periods from the "6th Five-Year Plan" in 1981 to the "10th Five-Year Plan" in 2001. Its main task was to build the foundation for the integrated economic and social development of Chinese-path modernization. It was precisely during this stage that the "Five-Year Plan" was officially renamed from the original "National Economic Plan" to the "National Economic and Social Development Plan," and the national economic system began to transform from a planned economic system that was over-managed and over-rigid toward a market-oriented planned commodity economy system. The Stable Maturity Phase spans five periods from the "11th Five-Year Plan" in 2006 to the present "15th Five-Year Plan." Its main task is to build the foundation for the comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable development of Chinese-path modernization. In this stage, the Chinese term for "plan" was changed [3], signifying that the strategies, tactics, and measures by which the Party leads economic and social development through governance by planning have become increasingly mature. The formulation and implementation of overall national development strategic plans from the perspectives of top-level design, systematic integration, and comprehensive advancement have become increasingly institutionalized and governed by the rule of law. Governance by planning has become the institutional mode of the Party’s governance and the dynamic mechanism for the development of Chinese-path modernization.
Governance by planning provides the institutional and mechanistic guarantee for the step-by-step advancement of Chinese-path modernization. After years of continuous evolution, governance by planning has formed a development framework characterized by "leadership through strategic concepts—shaping of development consensus—horizontal and vertical translation of plans—implementation and adaptation of actions." This builds a systematized institutional guarantee for the step-by-step advancement of Chinese-path modernization.
"Leadership through strategic concepts" is manifested as the CPC Central Committee establishing periodic national development concepts, strategic directions, strategic tasks, and strategic logic through its Proposals for the five-year plan. Based on this, the State Council compiles the Outline of the five-year plan, transforming the Party's strategic intentions into the will of the state. "Shaping of development consensus" deeply integrates the concept of whole-process people's democracy into the national medium- and long-term development strategic decision-making process through various forms such as research projects, online solicitation of opinions, holding various symposiums, and conducting formal consultative meetings and deliberations. This ensures the five-year plan becomes an overall development strategy that consolidates the development consensus of the whole society. "Horizontal and vertical translation of plans" is expressed first by transforming the Party's Proposals into the state's Outline, and then "translating" these across tiers, departments, and fields into local and departmental five-year plans, special plans for different sectors, and various regional plans. This allows the programmatic five-year plan to be substantiated into more operable and feasible detailed texts and schemes. "Implementation and adaptation of actions" refers to the use of tools such as binding evaluation indicators, major strategic tasks, major engineering projects, and annual execution plans to ensure plan goals move from text to practice and from expectations to performance.
At the same time, governance by planning also builds management systems—such as the top-level design system of "Ruling Party Decision-making — NPC Deliberation — State Council Execution" and the operational management system of "Plan Translation — Plan Linkage — Plan Evaluation." It also utilizes operating mechanisms such as the dynamic adjustment mechanism of "Plan Strategic Succession — Plan Policy Synergy — Plan Catalog Listing" and the plan consultation mechanism of "Public Opinion Collection — Expert Consultation and Proofing — Think-Tank Support." These organically unify the strategic will of the ruling party, the long-term development goals of the state, and the overall demands of society. They unify the state’s periodic, forward-looking, and holistic development strategies with the decision-making deployment and implementation of all levels, departments, and fields, forming a collective force to advance Chinese-path modernization.
As a holistic governance paradigm that integrates the ruling party's political leadership, the government's holistic governance, and the comprehensive mobilization of society, governance by planning uses the compilation and implementation of five-year plans for national economic and social development as its primary carrier. Through institutionalized procedural arrangements, democratized decision-making processes, scientific goal-setting, highly efficient execution mechanisms, and rule-of-law-based evaluation and constraints, it constructs a set of national governance systems and institutions with high degrees of autonomy, adaptability, and sustainability, thereby driving Chinese-path modernization toward greater depth.
The rise of the governance by planning paradigm and its global significance. As a late-developing large country, contemporary China's modernization process faces the dual pressure of weak foundational conditions and heavy, urgent development tasks. It must take a path of "catch-up" development, which can only rely on a ruling party with strong leadership and integration capabilities to actively initiate and comprehensively advance the modernization process. As an ultra-large-scale country, China has a vast territory, obvious regional differences, a massive population, and relatively scarce per capita resources. It needs to mobilize the resources of the entire nation and "concentrate strengths to accomplish big things" (集中力量办大事). Through the method of planning, it consolidates national development consensus and collective force, avoiding a situation of fragmented development where everyone goes their own way. As the carrier for implementing periodic strategic will and long-term goals, governance by planning decomposes long-term strategies into operable and evaluable periodic tasks, projects, and measures, steadily advancing the process of Chinese-path modernization through continuously accumulated development performance.
The rise, evolution, and maturity of the governance by planning paradigm represent China’s success, under the Party's leadership, in forging a unique development path that differs from the "classical" Western modernization model. Its essence lies in using institutionalized and legalized planning methods to transform the ruling party's long-term strategic vision into periodic national action programs. Then, through systematic policy tools and governance mechanisms, it continuously transforms the goals of different historical periods into tangible development performance, finally realizing the organic unity of step-by-step advancement in national modernization and the continuous improvement of the people's well-being.
Having undergone continuous exploration and attained a mature, settled form, the governance by planning paradigm has accumulated five experiences of world significance. First, adhering to the Party's overall leadership and strategic guidance ensures that national and social development goals are always oriented toward the long-term goals of Chinese-path modernization, organically combining long-term and short-term goals, and "carrying on the work term after term and generation after generation." Second, adhering to a people-centered value orientation always takes the realization, maintenance, and development of the fundamental interests of the broadest masses of the people as the starting point and end goal. In the historical journey from solving the people's "food and clothing" problem to improving public welfare and then to achieving common prosperity for all, it has pushed integrated economic and social development to higher stages and higher-quality levels. Third, adhering to the institutional advantage of "concentrating strengths to accomplish big things" allows for focus on key fields and weak links critical to the country's overall and long-term development at every stage of Chinese-path modernization, achieving major breakthroughs and completing major tasks in a relatively short time. Fourth, adhering to a development method that combines step-by-step goals with cumulative development performance ensures, through institutional arrangements of "prioritizing goals and sequencing tasks," the continuous accumulation of development resources and results. This allows the masses to maintain full devotion to, participation in, and support for Chinese-path modernization as they continuously share in these resources and fruits. Fifth, constructing a collective development framework of a "capable government, an effective market, and an orderly society" gives full play to the subjectivity, proactivity, and cooperativeness of the four core actors—the ruling party, the government, the market, and society—in the historical process of Chinese-path modernization, promoting the construction of a diversified system of collective forces for development.