ROADMAP FOR FUTURE

The author is professor of politics at East China Normal University in Shanghai

A key focus of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, held in Beijing from October 26 to 29, was the blueprint of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), which will be a key guide for Chinese development for years to come.

This plan is a set of major adjustments as China continues to pivot away from export-led growth and implements the dual-circulation strategy—which consists of making the country more self-sufficient, increasing domestic demand, and simultaneously maintaining opening up and Chinese exports, for the near-long-term at least.

This adjustment arrives with the convergence of three factors—longstanding needs, new pressures associated with Washington’s China containment efforts