“Five-Year Plans”: An Important Mode of Governance for the Communist Party of China

In April 2025, when presiding over a symposium on economic and social development during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period with some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that “scientifically formulating and successively implementing five-year plans is an important experience of our Party in governing the country, and also an important political advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” In August 2020, at a symposium of experts in the economic and social fields, General Secretary Xi Jinping clearly stated: “Using medium- and long-term plans to guide economic and social development is an important mode of governance for our Party.” These important expositions are the empirical summary and theoretical refinement of our Party’s great practice of using five-year plans (programs) to guide economic and social development since the founding of New China.

2025年4月，习近平总书记在主持召开部分省区市“十五五”时期经济社会发展座谈会时强调，“科学制定和接续实施五年规划，是我们党治国理政一条重要经验，也是中国特色社会主义一个重要政治优势”。2020年8月，习近平总书记在经济社会领域专家座谈会上明确提出：“用中长期规划指导经济社会发展，是我们党治国理政的一种重要方式。”这些重要论述，是对新中国成立以来我们党以五年规划（计划）引领经济社会发展伟大实践的经验总结与理论提炼。

“Five-Year Plans” Advance the Process of China’s Modernization in Succession

“五年规划”接力推进中国现代化进程

How to advance socialist modernization in a huge, late-developing agricultural country like China was a major strategic issue that our Party urgently needed to resolve after the founding of New China. In 1953, the Party Central Committee formulated the general line for the transition period of “one industrialization and three transformations.” [1]1 “From the masses, to the masses” is a formulation of the mass line, a core working method of the CPC that emphasizes gathering the people’s scattered opinions, systematizing them, and then propagating them back to the masses for implementation. The “First Five-Year Plan” was formulated in accordance with the Party’s general line for the transition period, thereby opening the prelude to the Party’s use of five-year plans (programs) to guide economic and social development.

如何在中国这样一个规模巨大的后发农业大国推动社会主义现代化建设，是新中国成立后我们党亟待解决的重大战略问题。1953年，党中央制定了“一化三改”的过渡时期总路线。“一五”计划就是根据党在过渡时期的总路线而制定的，由此开启了党以五年规划（计划）引领经济社会发展的序幕。

Among the five “five-year plans” before reform and opening up, the “First Five-Year Plan” and the “Second Five-Year Plan” mainly revolved around the construction of the national economic system and industrial system; in response to changes in the domestic and international situation, the focus of the “Third Five-Year Plan” through the “Fifth Five-Year Plan” shifted to the war-preparedness construction of the “Third Front Construction.” [2]2 This quotation is from Xi Jinping’s remarks on the role of medium- and long-term planning, emphasizing the complementary functions of the market and the government. Overall, through the implementation of a series of major industrial construction projects arranged by the first five “five-year plans,” China basically achieved the goal of national industrialization, established an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic system on the basis of “poverty and blankness,” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, held in November 2013, was a landmark meeting that adopted the “Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms,” which set the framework for economic reform centered on the government-market relationship. and laid the economic foundation for socialist modernization.

改革开放前的五个“五年计划”中，“一五”计划、“二五”计划主要围绕国民经济体系和工业体系建设展开；因应国内外形势变化，“三五”计划到“五五”计划的内容重点转向了“三线建设”的战备建设。总的来说，通过前五个“五年计划”所安排的一系列重大工业建设项目的落地，我国基本实现了国家工业化的目标，在“一穷二白”的基础上建立起独立的比较完整的工业体系和国民经济体系，奠定了社会主义现代化的经济基础。

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party made the historic decision to shift the focus of the Party and state work to economic construction and implement reform and opening up. Correspondingly, the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” was renamed from “National Economic Plan” to “National Economic and Social Development Plan,” beginning to focus on promoting coordinated and orderly economic and social development. At the same time, the “five-year plan” gradually achieved an upgrade from a departmental system to a national system, and became increasingly standardized and institutionalized. Since 2006, “plan” (规划) replaced “plan” (计划), a change of one character that accurately positioned the function of medium- and long-term planning under the conditions of a socialist market economy. On this basis, the state implemented reform measures including the coordination and effective linkage of central and local plans, the establishment of a mid-term evaluation mechanism for plans, and the strengthening of the application of plan outcomes, making the five-year plan increasingly exhibit the characteristics of mapping out the overall development strategy of China’s modernization.

党的十一届三中全会作出了把党和国家工作中心转移到经济建设上来、实行改革开放的历史性决策，与之相适应，“六五”计划从“国民经济计划”更名为“国民经济和社会发展计划”，开始注重推动经济社会协调有序发展。同时，“五年计划”逐步实现从部门体制向国家体制的升格，并愈发规范化、制度化。自2006年起，以“规划”代替“计划”，一字之变，是对社会主义市场经济条件下中长期规划功能的准确定位。在此基础上，国家实施了包括央地规划协同及有效衔接、建立规划中期评估机制、强化规划成果运用等改革举措，使得五年规划愈发呈现出擘画中国现代化整体发展战略的特质。

Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping has personally served as the head of the drafting

党的十八大以来，习近平总书记亲自担任“十三五”和“十四五”规划建议起草组组长，亲自谋划、亲自部署、亲自推动五年规划工作，引领经济社会发展不断取得新的更大成就。一方面，推动构建以国家五年规划为总纲的统一规划体系以及国家发展规划的实施机制；另一方面，推动国家发展规划法的立法进程。五年规划作为党治国理政的重要方式，走向体系化、制度化、法治化，成为将我们党治国理政的战略主张和理论成果转化为发展实践和发展绩效的重要载体。

General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: “From the First Five-Year Plan to the 14th Five-Year Plan, the consistent theme has been building our country into a modern socialist country.” Under the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee, through the scientific formulation and successive implementation of five-year plans (plans), we have created two miracles rarely seen in the world — rapid economic development and long-term social stability — and have blazed a path of modernization development that conforms to China’s national conditions and carries universal significance.

习近平总书记指出：“从第一个五年计划到第十四个五年规划，一以贯之的主题是把我国建设成为社会主义现代化国家。”在党中央统一领导下，通过科学制定并接续实施五年规划（计划）的方式，我们创造了世所罕见的经济快速发展和社会长期稳定两大奇迹，走出了一条符合中国国情且带有普遍意义的现代化发展道路。

“Five-Year Plans” Manifest the Institutional Advantages of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

“五年规划”彰显中国特色社会主义制度优势

The five-year plan is a mode of governance that our Party has continuously explored and matured through practice in the course of socialist modernization, and it centrally embodies the institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

五年规划是我们党在社会主义现代化建设实践中不断探索并成熟定型的治国理政方式，集中体现了中国特色社会主义制度优势。

The advantage of the centralized, unified leadership of the Party. The characteristics of our country’s modernization construction — a weak development foundation, arduous development tasks, and difficulties in exploring the development path — determine that upholding the centralized, unified leadership of the Party is a necessary prerequisite. The Communist Party of China is a modern political party organization with strong capacity for integration and guidance. It always plays the strategic leading role of commanding the overall situation and coordinating all parties. Through extensive pooling of wisdom and scientific democratic decision-making, it can form a system of strategic objectives that are comprehensive, fundamental, long-term, and sustainable, bearing on the development of the state and society. Through the formulation and implementation of five-year plans, our Party organically unifies strategic objectives with development policies and concrete measures, ensuring that the Party’s political ideals and goals can be transformed into tangible development performance and a better life reality that satisfies the people. It is precisely this kind of strategic continuity and policy stability — “drawing the blueprint through to the end” — that enables us to avoid the mutual checks and policy reversals seen under Western multiparty systems, and to truly both organically unify and concretely realize immediate interests, near-term interests, overall interests, and long-term interests.

党的集中统一领导优势。我国现代化建设事业面临发展基础薄弱、发展任务艰巨和发展道路探索困难等特征，决定了坚持党的集中统一领导是必要前提。中国共产党是具备强大整合与引领能力的现代政党组织，始终发挥着总揽全局、协调各方的战略引领作用，能够通过广泛的集思广益和科学的民主决策，形成事关国家和社会发展的全局性、根本性、长期性、可持续性的战略目标体系。而通过五年规划的制定和实施，我们党将战略目标与发展政策、具体举措有机统一起来，确保党的政治理想和奋斗目标能够转化为实实在在的发展绩效和人民群众满意的美好生活现实。正是这种“一张蓝图绘到底”的战略连续性与政策稳定性，使得我们避免了西方多党制下的相互掣肘和政策反复，能够真正将现实利益、近期利益与整体利益、长远利益既有机统一又落到实处。

The advantage of the value pursuit of putting the people first. The fundamental purpose of our Party leading the people in reform and opening up and socialist modernization is to continuously raise the people’s material and cultural living standards and promote the all-round development of the individual by developing the social productive forces. From the First Five-Year Plan to the 14th Five-Year Plan, the value orientation of putting the people first runs through the entire process. In the process of drafting five-year plans, our Party fully understands the needs and expectations of the people through methods such as investigation and research and listening to public opinion, thereby laying a foundation of consensus and democracy for the scientific formulation and implementation of strategic decisions. For example, to draft the proposals for the 14th Five-Year Plan, from July to September 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping convened seven special symposiums in succession to

人民至上的价值追求优势。我们党领导人民进行改革开放和社会主义现代化建设的根本目的，就是要通过发展社会生产力，不断提高人民物质文化生活水平，促进人的全面发展。从“一五”计划到“十四五”规划，人民至上的价值取向贯穿始终。而在编制五年规划过程中，我们党通过调查研究、听取民意等方式，充分了解人民群众的需求和期盼，为科学制定和执行战略决策奠定共识基础、民主基础。例如，为起草好“十四五”规划建议，2020年7月到9月，习近平总书记接连召开7场专题座谈会，听取方方面面声音；首次就五年规划编制进行“网络问策”，网上留言100多万条。2025年5月，习近平总书记对“十五五”规划编制工作作出重要指示强调，“要坚持科学决策、民主决策、依法决策，把顶层设计和问计于民统一起来，加强调研论证，广泛凝聚共识，以多种方式听取人民群众和社会各界的意见建议，充分吸收干部群众在实践中创造的新鲜经验”。

The advantage of coordinating nationwide efforts and concentrating resources to accomplish major tasks. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out: "Our greatest advantage is that our socialist system can concentrate resources to accomplish major tasks. This is an important magic weapon for our success in achieving our undertakings." The five-year plan is essentially an institutionalized way of governance by the Communist Party of China, which, proceeding from the long-term development of the country and the overall interests of the people, at different stages of socialist modernization, targets the principal contradiction and central task of each period, based on the consideration of coordinating nationwide efforts, fully mobilizes forces and resources from all sides, and extensively pools wisdom and consensus from all quarters, to formulate the goals, concepts, strategies, etc., of national and social development. At the beginning of the founding of New China, on the basis of learning from the Soviet experience, our Party, through the five-year plan, concentrated extremely limited resources on construction projects of decisive significance for national industrialization, carried out the layout of productive forces nationwide, and played an important role in laying the foundation and setting up the framework for socialist modernization. Since the beginning of the new century, and especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, our Party has, through the five-year plan, further focused on key areas and priority tasks such as coordinated regional development, major project construction, and major scientific and technological breakthroughs, as well as construction in various fields including politics, economy, society, culture, and ecology, and has achieved major breakthroughs in some key "bottleneck" technology areas and advanced industrial chains.

全国一盘棋、集中力量办大事的优势。习近平总书记指出：“我们最大的优势是我国社会主义制度能够集中力量办大事。这是我们成就事业的重要法宝。”五年规划实质上是中国共产党从国家长远发展和人民整体利益出发，在社会主义现代化建设不同阶段，针对每一时期的主要矛盾和中心任务，基于全国一盘棋的考虑，充分动员各方面力量和资源，广泛凝聚各方面智慧和共识，制定国家和社会发展的目标、理念、战略等的制度化治国理政方式。新中国成立之初，在学习苏联经验基础上，我们党通过五年计划将极为有限的资源集中在对国家工业化有决定意义的建设项目上，在全国范围内进行生产力布局，起到了对社会主义现代化建设夯基垒台、立柱架梁的重要作用。新世纪以来特别是党的十八大以来，我们党通过五年规划进一步聚焦区域协调发展、重大工程建设、重大科技攻关等关键领域和重点任务，以及政治、经济、社会、文化、生态等各领域建设，在一些关键“卡脖子”技术领域、先进产业链领域均取得了重大突破。

The "five-year plan" demonstrates the synergistic forces of government, market, and society.

“五年规划”展现政府、市场、社会三方的协同力量

Transforming lofty ideals into medium- and long-term goals, turning people's expectations into development plans, and converting development plans into a beautiful reality requires not only giving play to the role of the Communist Party of China as the mainstay at the helm, but also leveraging the combined forces of government, market, and society.

将远大理想变成中长期奋斗目标，将人民期待变成发展规划，将发展规划变成美好现实，既需要发挥中国共产党领航掌舵的主心骨作用，又要发挥政府、市场和社会三者的合力作用。

The five-year plan is an important manifestation of the capable government under Party leadership. To build a great modern socialist country in all respects, it is indispensable for the Party to lead the people in scientifically formulating development strategies, and indispensable for the Party and government to continuously implement development plans. Good policies and development plans must conform to the people’s will and meet their aspirations and expectations, and must come from the masses and go to the masses. [1]1 “From the masses, to the masses” is a formulation of the mass line, a core working method of the CPC that emphasizes gathering the people’s scattered opinions, systematizing them, and then propagating them back to the masses for implementation. For a long time, before issuing important policies and making major decisions, our Party has required relevant departments to conduct in-depth grassroots investigations and research, to understand and grasp first-hand materials, and to put the ideological line of seeking truth from facts into practice. The capable government must both adapt to the changes of the times and the needs of the people, fully implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee, effectively link strategies, tactics, and measures, and do a good job in macroeconomic regulation and resource allocation, public services, and people’s livelihood security; it must also fully integrate resources from all sides, mobilize forces from all sides, and through the five-year plan and annual plans, meticulously draw up roadmaps, timetables, and task books for transforming the plan into various actions, turning them into reality, and providing powerful economic development momentum, harmonious social order, and a beautiful natural ecological environment for Chinese-path modernization. Further clarifying the national development strategic direction, work tasks, and breakthrough priorities through the five-year plan, effectively performing the functions of economic regulation, market supervision, social governance, public services, and environmental protection, compensating for market failures and social failures, safeguarding public interests, and enhancing the people’s satisfaction with a better life—these are all vivid manifestations of actively playing the role of the capable government.

五年规划是党领导下有为政府的重要体现。全面建成社会主义现代化强国，离不开党带领人民科学制定发展战略，离不开党和政府持续实施发展规划。好的方针政策和发展规划要顺应人民意愿、符合人民所思所盼，需要从群众中来、到群众中去。长期以来，我们党在出台重要方针政策、作出重大决策部署前，都要求有关部门深入基层调查研究，了解和掌握第一手材料，把实事求是的思想路线落到实处。有为政府既要顺应时代之变和人民之需，全面落实党中央决策部署，将战略、策略和举措有效贯通起来，做好宏观调控与资源配置、公共服务与民生保障等工作；又要充分整合各方面资源，动员各方面力量，通过五年规划和年度计划，精心编制将规划转化为各项行动的路线图、时间表、任务书，并将其变成现实，为中国式现代化提供强大的经济发展动力、和谐的社会秩序和美丽的自然生态环境。通过五年规划进一步明确国家发展战略方向、工作任务、突破重点，有效发挥经济调节、市场监管、社会治理、公共服务和环境保护等职能，弥补市场失灵和社会失灵，保障公共利益，提升人民美好生活满意度，这些都是积极发挥有为政府作用的生动体现。

The five-year plan promotes the construction process of the effective market. General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, “Practice has proven that medium- and long-term development plans can both give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and better play the role of the government.” [2]2 This quotation is from Xi Jinping’s remarks on the role of medium- and long-term planning, emphasizing the complementary functions of the market and the government. The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC proposed, “The focus of comprehensively deepening reforms is economic system reform, and the core issue is to properly handle the relationship between the government and the market, enabling the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation and better playing the role of the government.” [3]3 The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, held in November 2013, was a landmark meeting that adopted the “Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms,” which set the framework for economic reform centered on the government-market relationship. The government and the market are two wheels driving economic and social development, and neither is dispensable. The construction of an effective market is inseparable from the openness, transparency, and full flow of information, and inseparable from the formulation and implementation of fair and impartial government regulatory rules and laws. The five-year plan organically unifies the development concepts, development strategies, main objectives, key tasks, and major measures of the country within a certain period, thereby providing the market and society with clear guidance on development direction and development pathways. Today’s China has entered the stage of building a high-level socialist market economy system, where promoting high-quality economic development and building a unified national market are top priorities. This requires better leveraging the role of market mechanisms, creating a fairer and more dynamic market environment, optimizing the efficiency and maximizing the benefits of resource allocation, and stimulating the endogenous driving force and innovation vitality of the whole society.

五年规划推动有效市场的建构进程。习近平总书记指出，“实践证明，中长期发展规划既能充分发挥市场在资源配置中的决定性作用，又能更好发挥政府作用”。党的十八届三中全会提出，“经济体制改革是全面深化改革的重点，核心问题是处理好政府和市场的关系，使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用”。政府和市场是推动经济社会发展的两个轮子，缺一不可。有效市场的建构，离不开信息的公开透明与充分流动，离不开政府公平公正监管规则和法律的制定与实施。五年规划把国家在一定时期内的发展理念、发展战略、主要目标、重点任务、重大举措等有机统一起来，也就给了市场和社会明晰的发展方向牵引和发展路径指引。当今中国已进入构建高水平社会主义市场经济体制的阶段，推动经济高质量发展和统一大市场建设是重中之重，这需要更好发挥市场机制作用，创造更加公平、更有活力的市场环境，实现资源配置效率最优化和效益最大化，激发全社会内生动力和创新活力。

The five-year plan is an important way to stimulate social vitality. The construction of a good society is inseparable from the active participation, wisdom contribution, and collective efforts of the broad masses of the people. Since reform and opening up, on the one hand, through public participation mechanisms, the opinions of the people have been fully solicited during the planning process and its full-cycle management, transforming the people’s thoughts and expectations into major development strategies of the Party and the state, fully concentrating the people’s wisdom, gathering the people’s hearts, and reflecting the people’s will; on the other hand, through a series of strategic deployments in the social and people’s livelihood fields, the integrated development of the economy and society has been promoted, the full coverage and high-quality construction of the public service system has been advanced, providing strong material guarantees and sufficient confidence and motivation for the broad masses of the people to actively participate in national construction, thereby providing a continuous source of power for the sustainable development of a vibrant society.

五年规划是激发社会活力的重要方式。美好社会的建设离不开广大人民的积极参与、智慧贡献和集体合力。改革开放以来，一方面通过公众参与机制，在规划编制及其全周期管理过程中充分征求人民群众的意见，把人民群众的所思所盼转化为党和国家的重大发展战略，充分集中民智、凝聚民心、体现民意；另一方面通过社会民生领域的一系列战略部署，推动经济社会一体化发展，推动公共服务体系的全覆盖和高质量建设，为广大人民群众积极参与国家建设提供强大的物质保障和充足的信心动力，从而为活力社会的永续发展提供源源不断的动力。

(Authors: Tang Yalin, Qian Kun, respectively Distinguished Research Fellow of the Shanghai Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and Professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University; Associate Professor of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanjing Forestry University)

（作者：唐亚林 钱坤，分别系上海市习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特聘研究员、复旦大学国际关系与公共事务学院教授，南京林业大学人文社会科学学院副教授）

Online Editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心