Advancing Chinese Modernization Through High-Quality Development ​

High-quality development is an essential requirement for advancing Chinese modernization and bears heavily on the overall progress of China’s socialist modernization. The Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (hereinafter referred to as the “Recommendations”), adopted at the fourth plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), identifies the promotion of high-quality development as the main focus of economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). While following the approach of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), the Recommendations sets out strategic tasks in light of an accurate identification of the general trends in China’s development over the next five years. The push to advance Chinese modernization through high-quality development and achieve modernization for more than 1.4 billion people constitutes a rare and unprecedented undertaking in human history.

In observing the historical process of Chinese modernization, it is evident that socialist modernization can only be realized through a historical process of gradual and ongoing development. The 15th Five-Year Plan period will be critical in this process as we work to reinforce the foundations and push ahead on all fronts toward basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035. It will thus serve as a key link between the past and future. Reinforcing the foundations means, on the basis of the major achievements made during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will further address deep-seated structural issues that constrain high-quality development and the advancement of Chinese modernization, place greater emphasis on major issues that have a foundational impact on development and security, consolidate and build on our strengths, remove development bottlenecks, and shore up areas of weaknesses, thereby laying a more solid development foundation and enhancing resilience for modernization. Pushing ahead on all fronts means we will focus on coordinated action across all areas of economic and social development, work to achieve systematic breakthroughs and overall improvements, and secure major breakthroughs in strategic tasks of overall importance to Chinese modernization.

To secure decisive progress toward basically realizing socialist modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we must maintain an appropriate rate of economic growth. An important benchmark for basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035 is that China’s per capita GDP will be on a par with that of a mid-level developed country by that time. To this end, the Recommendations outlines a range of important objectives, such as ensuring the economy keeps growing within an appropriate range, realizing steady gains in total factor productivity, and fully unleashing the potential for growth. In addition, in response to prominent issues in the current stage, such as mounting downward economic pressure and insufficient effective demand, the Recommendations also sets out objectives, including delivering a notable increase in household consumption as a share of GDP and reinforcing the role of domestic demand as the principal engine of economic growth. Working backward from the long-term goal of achieving a per capita GDP of over US$20,000 by 2035, more than double the 2020 level in constant prices, and taking into account factors such as demographic changes, China’s GDP during the 15th and 16th Five-Year Plan periods would need to grow at an average annual rate of about 4.17%. In terms of feasibility, considering conditions such as the supply of production factors, technological progress, and the current shortfall in domestic demand, economic growth often follows a pattern of faster expansion in the early stages. As the economic base enlarges, growth tends to slow down. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China’s average annual economic growth rate may therefore need to be set somewhat higher, so as to lay a more solid foundation for basically realizing socialist modernization by 2035. Of course, emphasizing rapid growth does not equate to only pursuing speed. It is essential to abandon the extensive development model that relies primarily on the input of resources and other production factors to drive economic growth and scale expansion, place greater emphasis on the quality and efficiency of development, and create more models of economic growth led by domestic demand, driven by consumption, and sustained by self-generating momentum. While striving for faster economic growth where possible, greater efforts should be made to enhance the quality of development to achieve more efficient, equitable, sustainable, and secure development of the economy.

The “CHIEF1300,” the first centrifuge housed at the Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility is launched in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, September 29, 2025. The facility is a site of major national science and technology infrastructure independently developed by China. PHOTO BY XINHUA REPORTER HUANG ZONGZHI

During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, relations between major countries have an important bearing on the international landscape, the dynamics of which will in turn exert a profound impact on the domestic development of every country. China is in a period of development where strategic opportunities exist alongside risks and challenges and uncertainties and unforeseen factors are rising. Internationally, unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, and certain external forces are carrying out comprehensive efforts to suppress and contain China, erecting “small yards with high fences” and promoting decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. Major-country rivalry is becoming more intricate and intense than ever. In addition, China’s development imbalances and inadequacies remain prominent, and bottlenecks and obstacles are impeding economic flows. The task of transitioning to new growth drivers is formidable, and agricultural and rural modernization is lagging behind. There is considerable pressure weighing on employment and personal income growth, and risks and hidden dangers persist in some key areas. We face multiple challenges and pressure in keeping economic growth within an appropriate range. However, it is even more important to recognize that the Chinese economy has a solid foundation, advantages in many areas, strong resilience, and great potential. The conditions for and underlying trend of long-term growth remain unchanged. We are seeing the strengths of socialism with Chinese characteristics, China’s enormous market, its complete industrial system, and its abundant human resources all coming to the fore. China’s economic development enjoys broad space and powerful internal momentum. All this has created positive factors enabling China to make proactive moves in the international arena and shape a favorable external environment.

Development is the foundation for and key to resolving all of China’s problems. Realistically speaking, problems that arise in development must be addressed through development. The Recommendations explicitly identifies adhering to high-quality development as one of the core principles that must be followed and places securing significant achievements in high-quality development at the top of the main objectives. At present, China is undergoing a critical period of transforming its development model, optimizing its economic structure, and shifting drivers of growth. Promoting high-quality development is an urgent requirement for crossing this threshold and an inevitable choice to be made.

Promoting high-quality development is the fundamental requirement for determining our line of thinking on development, formulating economic policies, and conducting macroeconomic regulation in China at present and for the near future. The Recommendations makes comprehensive arrangements for economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with high-quality development running throughout the document as a unifying theme reflected in tasks across all fields. In order to advance Chinese modernization through high-quality development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it is essential to focus on the following key areas.

First, making the building of a modernized industrial system the main battlefield of high-quality development

A strong real economy is where China’s development advantages and foundations lie. The Recommendations indicates “building a modernized industrial system and reinforcing the foundations of the real economy” as the first strategic task and clearly proposes upgrading traditional industries, fostering emerging industries and industries of the future, and building a modernized industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone. Traditional industries constitute the basic underpinning of China’s modernized industrial system. Therefore, to keep the share of manufacturing in the national economy at an appropriate level, we must develop traditional industries rather than abandoning them. Traditional manufacturing is not only the foundation ensuring employment and people’s wellbeing, but it also forms a key arena for scientific and technological innovation. Without traditional manufacturing, technological innovation may lose its application scenarios and opportunities for iteration. At present, the focus of promoting high-quality development of traditional industries lies in upgrading, consolidating, and enhancing the position and competitiveness of industries such as mining, metallurgy, chemical industry, light industries, textiles, machinery, vessels, and construction in the global industrial division of labor. Efforts should be made to develop advanced manufacturing clusters, promote the shift toward digital and intelligent development in the manufacturing sector, and develop smart, green, and service-oriented manufacturing. Emerging industries and industries of the future represent the direction of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, which also represent key fields in competition among major countries. The Recommendations proposes redoubling efforts to develop emerging pillar industries and accelerating the development of industrial clusters in strategic emerging fields such as new energy, new materials, aviation and aerospace, and the low-altitude economy. It calls for exploring diverse technology roadmaps, typical application scenarios, feasible business models, and market regulation rules, and fostering new drivers of economic growth such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion power, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence (AI), and 6G mobile communications. A continuously rising share of modern services is an important feature of a modernized industrial system. The Recommendations proposes steering producer services toward greater specialization and the higher end of the value chain on a sector-by-sector basis. Vigorous efforts should be made to develop producer services, enhance specialized, socialized, and integrated services for manufacturing, and promote the integration of modern services with advanced manufacturing and modern agriculture. New types of infrastructure should be built with appropriate forward planning, while traditional infrastructure should be upgraded and retrofitted with digital and intelligent technologies. The building of a modernized industrial system must adhere to a direction in line with smart, green, and integrated development. At present, the green economy has become the peak arena for global industrial competition. Guided by the goals of achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, concerted efforts should be made to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, pursue green development, boost economic growth, and strengthen green development drivers.

Second, utilizing the achievement of greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology as an important support for high-quality development

The most important task in promoting high-quality development is to intensify efforts toward achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and actively develop new quality productive forces. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s total R&D expenditure and the share devoted to basic research both reached historic highs. This led to the yielding of abundant results in scientific and technological innovation, China’s rise in the ranking in the Global Innovation Index from 14th to 10th, decisive breakthroughs made in core technologies in key fields, and research and application in areas such as AI, biopharmaceuticals, and robotics entering the global first tier. The Recommendations proposes promoting advances in original innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and pursuing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and human resources. Unconventional measures should be adopted to drive decisive breakthroughs in core technologies across entire chains in key fields such as integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end equipment, basic software, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing. We should foster a positive interplay between indigenous technological innovation and the training of homegrown talent and develop globally influential centers for education, science, and talent. The AI Plus Initiative should be advanced across the board to gain the edge in AI industrial application and empower all sectors on all fronts. We should promote full integration between technological and industrial innovation, with a focus on orienting innovation to actual demand and adhering to the principle that industry poses the questions and science provides the answers. Enterprise-led integrated innovation among industries, universities, and research institutes should be promoted. We should facilitate the flow of innovation resources toward enterprises, enhance their innovation capacity, and enable enterprises to take the lead in decision-making on technological innovation, R&D investment, scientific research organization, and the commercialization of outcomes.

Third, utilizing the building of a robust domestic market as an important safeguard for high-quality development

Expanding domestic demand bears not only on economic stability but also on economic security. It is not a temporary measure, but a strategic choice. The Recommendations proposes implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand, enhancing the dynamism and reliability of the domestic economy, boosting consumption, expanding effective investment, and eliminating bottlenecks and obstacles hindering the development of a unified national market. At present, the key measures to boost consumption include removing unreasonable or “one-size-fits-all” restrictive measures in the consumption sector, adopting management measures suitable for new forms, models, and scenarios of consumer spending, and boosting consumption of services with a focus on easing market access and integrating various forms of business. The income distribution structure should be optimized to increase people’s spending power. Inclusive policies that directly benefit consumers should be strengthened, and the government should spend more on public wellbeing. At the same time, we should fully leverage the stimulating and multiplier effect of government investment. To respond to structural demographic shifts, population movement trends, trends in industrial upgrading, and the need to optimize service functions, the layout of supporting infrastructure and public service facilities, such as education, should be optimized. A number of key projects for consumption-supporting facilities should also be implemented in areas such as eldercare, childcare, healthcare, culture, and tourism. Major landmark projects should be carried out in line with national development needs in areas such as urban renewal, key strategic routes, new energy systems, major water conservancy projects, and major national scientific and technological infrastructure. Reform of the investment review and approval system should be deepened to spur private investment. Additionally, efforts should be intensified to advance the development of a unified national market, unify the underlying institutions and rules of the market, eliminate local protectionism and market segmentation, and promote the smooth flow of goods and factors over a wider range.

Fourth, making furthering reform and opening up the fundamental driving force for high-quality development

Continuing reforms to develop the socialist market economy hinges on properly handling the relationship between the government and the market, which requires us to ensure that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and that the government better fulfills its role. The Recommendations proposes focusing on removing institutional barriers that impede high-quality development, advancing in-depth reform, expanding high-standard opening up, and enhancing development momentum and social vitality. It is necessary to uphold and fulfill our commitments to both the public and nonpublic sectors* and ensure economic entities under diverse forms of ownership complement each other and develop side by side. It is also necessary to further reform state capital and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), improve market-oriented operating mechanisms, and refine the layout and adjust the structure of the state-owned sector, with a focus on strengthening strategic security, leading industrial upgrading, and improving people’s wellbeing and public services. The Private Sector Promotion Law should be implemented to help the private sector grow bigger and stronger. Efforts should be accelerated to improve the institutions and mechanisms for market-based allocation of production factors and advance zero-based budgeting reform. The central government should hold more fiscal powers as appropriate and accordingly raise the proportion of its expenditure. More fiscal resources should be placed at the disposal of local governments. The central bank system should be refined and the monetary policy transmission mechanism optimized. We should make the capital market more institutionally inclusive and adaptable, and better balance its investment and financing functions. China should open wider to the outside world as it seeks to promote the innovative development of trade and advance balanced development of imports and exports. We should expand two-way investment cooperation, promote the integrated development of trade and investment, and guide the overseas distribution of industrial and supply chains in a rational, orderly manner.

Fifth, making the improvement of living standards the starting point and ultimate goal of high-quality development 

Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all. The Recommendations proposes respecting the principal position of the people, focusing on ensuring and improving their wellbeing through development, and opening up greater space for development in the course of satisfying their needs. Meanwhile, it emphasizes the need to follow the principle of doing everything within our means. In line with this principle, we must ensure that public services are inclusive, meet essential needs, and provide a cushion for those most in need, and work to resolve the pressing difficulties and problems that concern the people most. Firmly anchored in the goal of ensuring and improving the people’s wellbeing, a series of balanced and accessible policies and measures will be deployed to promote high-quality full employment, optimize the income distribution system, develop education that meets the people’s expectations, refine the social security system, promote high-quality development in the real estate sector, advance the Healthy China Initiative, bolster high-quality population development, and make steady efforts to ensure equitable access to basic public services. These measures include leveraging multiple channels to increase the property income of both urban and rural residents, implementing an income growth plan for them, effectively increasing the earnings of low-income people, and steadily enlarging the middle-income group; moving faster to develop the multi-tiered, multi-pillar old-age insurance system; and gradually increasing basic old-age insurance benefits for rural and non-working urban residents. In seeking to narrow disparities between rural and urban areas and between regions, it also proposes a series of practical measures to accelerate the pace of agricultural and rural modernization, steadily advance rural revitalization, improve the regional economic layout, and promote coordinated regional development. Achieving common prosperity for all is a long-term historical process that requires patience and unremitting efforts. It is essential to promote common prosperity through high-quality development, coordinate needs with possibility, and ensure and improve public wellbeing on the basis of sustainable growth in the economy and fiscal capacity, with an emphasis on enhancing the level of public services. In areas of greatest concern to the people, such as education, healthcare, eldercare, and housing, basic public services should be provided in a targeted way, and the basic living needs of people in difficulty should be met.

* We must stay committed to unswervingly consolidating and developing the public sector and unswervingly encouraging, supporting, and guiding the development of the nonpublic sector.

Yin Yanlin is Deputy Director of the Committee on Economic Affairs of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

(Originally appeared in Qiushi Journal, Chinese edition, No. 1, 2026)