China embarks on new journey toward socialist modernization as key blueprint approved
Pub Date:21-03-12 10:14 Source:Xinhua
China's
top legislative body on Thursday approved a development blueprint for
the next five to 15 years to guide the country's march toward
modernization, a dream pursued by many generations of Chinese.
After
a week of deliberations, the lawmakers adopted the Outline of the 14th
Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development
and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 at the closing
meeting of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress
(NPC).
"The outline serves as a
roadmap toward the country's second centenary goal of fully building a
modern socialist country, ushering China into a new stage of
development," said Wang Honghai, an NPC deputy and Party chief of Ninghe
District of Tianjin Municipality.
With
55.75 million rural residents lifted out of poverty over the past five
years, China will meet its first centenary goal within the set time
frame -- complete building a moderately prosperous society in all
respects.
To develop in only 70
years, a single lifetime, is a stupendous achievement -- in fact one not
matched previously by any large country in the whole of human history,
said John Ross, a British academic and senior fellow at Chongyang
Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of China.
Governance tradition
China has long been hailed for thinking strategically and playing the long game.
China's
five-year plan is one of the country's most important policy
blueprints. Drawn up since 1953, it sets long-term goals for China's
social and economic development and is the barometer against which
progress is measured.
The formulation
of such plans is regarded as a crucial tool for macroeconomic
governance and social management, and also a key to the country's
stellar development over the past few decades.
The
outline of the 14th five-year plan and the longer-term program to 2035
depicts the future landscape of how China will develop "as a high-income
economy," Ross said.
"The continuity
of China's policies will inject the much-needed stability and certainty
to the world roiled by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic," said Bai Yongxiu,
a professor at Northwest University.
Flexible economic targets
Avoiding
announcing an explicit economic growth target for the next five years,
China aims to keep its economy running within an appropriate range and
will set annual economic targets in light of actual circumstances, the
outline said.
"This shows that China
will focus on high-quality growth and not just chase after quantitative
expansion. It will give local authorities more room to allocate
resources to other initiatives to tap into China's long-term growth
potential," said Bai.
Li Daokui, a
national political advisor and an economist with Tsinghua University,
said by setting flexible growth targets, China can concentrate on deep
structural issues such as unleashing domestic demand and raising
innovation capacity.
The key document
also includes an array of other benchmark economic indicators such as
an urbanization rate of 65 percent, a surveyed urban unemployment rate
of lower than 5.5 percent and drastically-slashed carbon emissions per
unit of GDP in the next five years.
"The
major benchmark indicators set in the outline (for China to achieve)
are just like peaches on a tree that can only be picked if one jumps
hard," said He Lifeng, head of the National Development and Reform
Commission. "And we have to jump hard."
Reiterating
innovation's "core position" in the country's march toward
modernization, the outline stressed that China will make technological
self-sufficiency strategic support for national development.
China's
R&D spending will increase by more than 7 percent per year over the
next five years, accounting for a higher percentage of GDP than that in
the past five years, according to the document.
Modernization drive
In
October 2017, the Communist Party of China unveiled a two-stage plan to
build the world's most populous nation into a "great modern socialist
country" that is "prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced,
harmonious and beautiful" by the middle of the 21st century. According
to the plan, China will basically realize socialist modernization in the
first stage from 2020 to 2035.
One
significant feature of China's modernization is to improve people's
wellbeing, as evidenced by the country's herculean efforts to eradicate
poverty over the past years and its COVID-19 containment measures that
always put people's health and safety first.
"Modernity
has always been pluralistic, and there is no unified plan for
modernization," said Chen Shuguang, a professor at the Party School of
the Communist Party of China Central Committee. "It is increasingly
clear that the modernization China seeks will not be a mere replica of
the Western one."
Fresh opportunities for world
In
its gradual and concrete approaches to modernization, China is expected
to continuously share with the world its development opportunities to
drive global growth hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising
sentiment of protectionism and unilateralism.
Rising
incomes and more complex needs of the Chinese people will transform and
expand numerous global markets associated with high living standards --
culture, education, entertainment, travel, health care and
environmental protection, Ross said.
China
has a population of 1.4 billion and a middle-income group that exceeds
400 million. "The world stands to benefit from the vastly huge market as
China will step up opening-up efforts and continue to support economic
globalization," said Zhang Shuibo, a national political advisor and
professor at Tianjin University.
A
more prosperous and strong China will not only further unleash market
potential, but also be more capable of helping other countries and
shoulder international responsibility, Zhang said.