China firm in pursuing high-quality development amid profound, complex changes

BEIJING -- The Chinese leadership has stressed high-quality development over fast-paced growth for the next five years, flagging the need to form a new development pattern amid increasingly complex international environment and uncertainties. The blueprint not only answers 1.4 billion people's call for a better life but also injects greater impetus into the global economic recovery.

China is in an important period of strategic opportunity for development now and in the foreseeable future. High-quality development is a must to achieve its modernization goal.

The leadership is paying more attention to fostering a new development pattern where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. China will enhance the quality and efficiency of economic development with improved economic structures, breakthroughs in core high-technology industries, green development, and balanced growth among regions.

The Communist Party of China Central Committee's proposals for formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, published on Tuesday, provide more details: China will focus on deepening the supply-side structural reform and transform the development model to deliver real benefits to all its people. It will enhance the level of opening-up, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and strengthen the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade.

The proposals send out a clear signal that the world's second-largest economy will remain committed to deepening reform and opening-up and realize win-win cooperation. China will continue to sail on its charted course no matter what headwinds it might encounter.

With a population of 1.4 billion and a per capita GDP of more than 10,000 U.S. dollars, China is the largest consumer market in the world and has massive growth potential. Foreign enterprises have enormous space to participate in key areas of China's development, such as scientific and technological innovation, industrial development, domestic demand, rural vitalization, regional and green development.

For instance, regional headquarters and R&D centers set up by multinational companies in China have exceeded 2,000, and foreign-funded high-tech enterprises account for about a quarter of the country's total, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China's development planning is not aimed at competing with other countries but focuses on fulfilling domestic demand and people's wishes for a better life. Its modernization drive carries the Chinese people's desire for a wealthier life with dignity. According to the long-range objectives for 2035, more notable and substantial progress will be achieved in promoting well-rounded human development and achieving common prosperity for everyone.

These tasks are daunting, and weak links must be fortified. The Chinese leadership has strategic courage and the foresight to identify and address problems. That is why innovation is to be at the core of the country's modernization drive, and self-reliance in science and technology is to be pursued to support national development.

Facing some Western politicians' provocations and attempts to contain China's development, China will focus on taking care of its own matters and promoting peace and common development, rather than being led astray by engaging in a head-on collision with other countries.

China's experience over the past decades has proved that development is the key to solving all problems facing the country. With its eye on the next five years and longer, the country's high-quality development will no doubt usher in even greater achievements ahead.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of Qiushi Journal.