Dong Yu, executive vice dean of the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University

Editor's Note: 

The scientific formulation and consistent implementation of five-year plans stand as an important piece of experience in the Communist Party of China's (CPC) approach to governing the country. It's also significantly representing the political advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

On May 19, Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, in an instruction on the work concerning the compilation of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), stressed sound, democratic, and law-based decision-making to ensure China's next five-year plan for national economic and social development is formulated in high quality. He emphasized the importance of integrating top-level design with seeking advice from the public, enhancing research and discussions, and building broad consensus. 

In the first volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China, Xi, in a speech at the Second Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, emphasized: "The same is true in treating work at local and departmental levels. We have already got in our hands a good blueprint. What we should do is to follow it through to the end and make it a success." 

While working at the local level, Xi proposed the 15-year development plan for Xiamen, the "3820" strategic project in Fuzhou, and the "Double-Eight" strategy in Zhejiang Province - all of which demonstrate his consistent, high-level emphasis on development and strategic planning. 

In the sixth installment of the special series "Decoding the Book of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China," the Global Times, along with People's Daily Overseas Edition, focuses on the theme "Follow a good blueprint through to the end! A harmonious, stable, open, and confident China brings more opportunities for global cooperation." We continue to invite Chinese and foreign scholars, translators of Xi's works, practitioners with firsthand experience, and international readers to share their views and reflections on how China employs development strategies and medium- to long-term planning to steer economic and social progress, as well as their impressions of General Secretary Xi's strategic thinking.

The fifth article of the "Scholars' Perspectives" column features an interview with Dong Yu, executive vice dean of the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University. Dong is one of the participants in the formulation of several recent five-year plans and has also witnessed the central economic policy-making and implementation since the 18th CPC National Congress.

 Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, places great importance on development strategies and planning. He has noted that the scientific formulation and consistent implementation of five-year plans stand as an important piece of experience in the CPC's approach to governing the country. It's also significantly representing the political advantage of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

While working at the local levels, Xi proposed several development strategies, including the 15-year development plan for Xiamen, the "3820" strategic project in Fuzhou, and the "Double-Eight" strategy in Zhejiang Province. 

These strategies share a distinct feature — a strong emphasis on systematic medium- and long-term planning. Whether for a country or a local region, formulating a development blueprint is essential, which helps to clarify direction and outline a path forward. Years later, these regions are still developing in accordance with the strategic plans set out by Xi at the time, and tangible results continue to emerge. This demonstrates that the significance of these strategies goes beyond the specific regions where they were implemented and offers valuable insights for broader application.

A key feature of these strategies is their strong emphasis on the guiding role of long-term objectives. Typically, macroeconomic regulation is conducted on a short-term basis - quarterly or annually. Five-year plans serve as medium-term frameworks, while 10-, 15-year, or even longer plans fall into the category of long-term strategy. In practice, many local governments in the past focused more on short-term goals and often lacked a long-term, systematic planning approach.

However, Xi demonstrated a deeply forward-looking mind-set back at the time. The local strategies he led were featured by broader perspectives in identifying issues, more diverse approaches in analyzing challenges, and more systematic approaches to problem-solving. This strategic thinking has since been thoroughly validated in practice.

In strategic planning, Xi placed great emphasis on maintaining a clear sense of developmental rhythm, advocating for a step-by-step, well-paced, and well-organized approach. A typical example is Fuzhou's "3820" strategic project, which adopted a "three-step" progression - advancing in phases over three, eight, and 20 years. The initial three-year phase was also aligned with the five-year plan, ensuring that the goals set for each stage were both guiding and consistent with the planning cycle. This kind of systematic engineering approach enabled the realization of goals through well-orchestrated steps. The clarity of rhythm and solidity of execution in such strategies allowed development to advance steadily and continuously reach new heights.

More importantly, after establishing the overall development framework, Xi also formulated clear and targeted strategies tailored to the specific characteristics of different regions and sectors. For example, the "Double-Eight" strategy was developed through an in-depth analysis of Zhejiang's strengths in eight key areas, from which concrete strategic directions and implementation paths were proposed. This strategy featured both a comprehensive layout and practical, actionable guidance. It effectively balanced the relationship between the whole and the parts, as well as between overarching goals and specific pathways.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi has continued to uphold and apply this strategic thinking. The report to the 20th CPC National Congress explicitly identified seven key ways of thinking, with strategic thinking listed first -highlighting its fundamental importance. Whether in formulating five-year plans, guiding top-level design across various sectors, or advancing the overall process of Chinese modernization, strategic thinking plays a critical role. This once again demonstrates that strategic thinking is not only essential at the local level, but is also an indispensable capability for governing a country.

The 15th Five-Year Plan marks the fifth such plan I have personally participated in. My involvement began with the 11th Five-Year Plan, when I had just joined the National Development and Reform Commission - serving, quite literally, as the "typist" for that plan's outline. Through this process, I have come to deeply understand that a national five-year plan is a concentrated expression of top-level strategic design. It is also a process of pooling collective wisdom and coordinating broader interests. Although the document itself runs to tens of thousands of words, every single word is carefully weighed and considered with the utmost caution, taking into full account the needs and development directions of all sectors.

The 11th Five-Year Plan was the first time the term "Five-Year Jihua" was changed to "Five-Year Guihua," a shift that signified more than just a change in name - it reflected a transformation in the mode of governance. Under the planned economy, emphasis was placed on administrative directives. In contrast, the term "guihua" highlights strategy, guidance, and alignment with the logic of the socialist market economy. This marked a profound shift in China's development approach.

By the time of the 12th Five-Year Plan, I was personally responsible for drafting several sections of the Outline of the 12th Five-Year (2011-2015) Plan for National Economic and Social Development of China, including those covering regional development, urbanization, and ecological protection. In regional planning, the focus shifted more toward adapting to local conditions and emphasizing the guiding role of the national principal functional zoning strategy. This approach involved setting broad directions at the national level while encouraging localities to develop based on their own strengths.

In terms of urbanization, the 12th Five-Year Plan emphasized the gradual transformation of eligible rural migrants into urban residents as a key task. This was viewed as a crucial step toward dismantling the urban-rural dual structure and improving living standards. Regarding ecological and environmental protection, the 12th Five-Year Plan devoted more attention and resources compared to the 11th Five-Year Plan, offering more concrete action points and stronger project-based support mechanisms.

During the drafting of the 13th Five-Year Plan, I participated in drafting the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China (2016-2020). At that time, General Secretary Xi served for the first time as the head of the drafting group for the recommendation document. He personally chaired several plenary meetings of the group and proposed a large number of new ideas and requirements. 

The concept of the "new development philosophy" was one of his key contributions. The drafting process was open and democratic - various government departments, think tanks, and sectors of society submitted numerous proposals, all of which were carefully reviewed and selectively incorporated by the drafting team. During internal discussions, even division-level officials like myself were able to engage in equal dialogue with ministers. Everyone had the opportunity to express opinions, participate in open exchanges, and build consensus, which then formed the basis for further revisions and improvements to the plan's content.

By the time of the 14th Five-Year Plan, I was already at Tsinghua University, participating in research and offering suggestions on the overall planning framework from an external academic perspective. I noticed that during the drafting of the plan, the central government placed greater emphasis on widely soliciting opinions from all sectors of society. In particular, it was the first time that public opinions were openly collected online during the CPC Central Committee plenary session stage. 

This differed from earlier practices, which typically occurred during the plan outline stage and were primarily not through online channels. Such changes signify that the decision-making for the five-year plans has become more democratic and attaches greater emphasis on pooling wisdom from all sectors of society.

One prominent feature of the five-year plan in the new era is great emphasis on strategic thinking. Specifically, the 14th Five-Year Plan adopted a distinct innovation different from before —using long-term goals as a guide. In the past, when formulating plans, the common approach was to set short-term goals first and then outline long-term ones. However, the 14th Five-Year Plan reverses this order: it first defined the goals for 2035, and then those for 2025. This approach broadens the vision, uses overarching goals to guide near-term objectives of development targets and grasping the "rhythm of development" in a longer cycle. It represents a major innovation in applying systematic concepts to the arrangement of development timelines.

The second feature is an emphasis on the implementability of the plan - Xi once emphasized that in the drafting, "some measures should be obviously operable at first glance," and this pragmatic orientation is particularly evident in the recent two five-year plans.

The third feature is the systematic arrangement of major projects. There were 165 major projects during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and 102 during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. The arrangement of these major projects is not only an important part of plan formulation but also serves as the "core lever" for plan implementation. When discussing plan implementation, it largely hinges on the progress of these major projects, which is supported by a complete set of support mechanisms. It can be said that these innovations have become integral to China's planning system.

Xi has stressed "sound, democratic, and law-based decision-making" and emphasized the importance of "integrating top-level design with seeking advice from the public" in compilation of 15th Five-Year Plan. These three are indeed very core decision-making principles in planning formulation. In terms of scientific decision-making, the solicitation of suggestions for this plan was launched earlier and has a longer cycle than in the past. Widely listening to opinions from all sides at an early stage is of positive significance for enhancing the scientific nature of the plan's content. In the drafting of the text, it is required that each measure and each goal must have solid basis and sufficient demonstration, and each indicator must also be supported by scientific calculation. At the same time, the different contents of the plan should also be logically tight and connected with each other to form a systematic whole.

As for democratic decision-making, in addition to soliciting public opinions from the society, there are also standardized procedures for soliciting opinions within the Party. For instance, feedback is sought from relevant departments, senior officials, veteran Party members, and democratic parties. These processes are supported by institutional safeguards. 

Regarding law-based decision-making, an important backdrop this year is the legislation of the national development planning law. At present, the National People's Congress has completed the first reading of the law, and many core principles of the law will be implemented in the planning formulation and implementation. For example, it clearly stipulates the legal status of national development plans, formulation procedures, and their coordination with other special plans. The rule of law not only brings more standardized processes, but more importantly, ensures the authority of plans and their transmission mechanisms through legal means, enabling national development plans to be implemented in specific regional, special, and spatial plans through statutory procedures.

Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, I have not directly participated in the drafting but have provided suggestions from an external perspective. And our feeling is that the central government attaches great importance to feedback from all sectors of society, classifying and analyzing the opinions collected, focusing on studying prominent and feasible issues, and trying to incorporate them into the planning as much as possible.

From updates in concepts to institutional reforms, from top-level design to grassroots research, and from written blueprints to project implementation, the five-year plans in the new era are becoming important strategic tools to promote Chinese modernization. Through a decision-making system that integrates science, democracy, and the rule of law, the five-year plans not only set directions for economic and social development but also carry the far-reaching layout of China's development. In this era of continuous advancement, every policy suggestion, every field study, and every project established is an indispensable part to the modernization of national governance.