By Twyla Zhang
On July 30, 2020, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held a meeting to discuss and decide the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development. On March 11, 2021, the resolution on the 14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline of the Vision Goals for the Year 2035 got adopted. Simply speaking, this is the detailed plan and goals that China formulated and will try to achieve from 2021 to 2035. The overall outline is divided into 19 chapters and addresses almost every aspect of its development, such as technology innovation, digital industrialization, sustainable environment development, promotion of infrastructure, etc.
Within the 20 leading indicators of economic and social development from 2020 to 2025, the five indexes with the most significant changes in value are:
(1) The number of babies under three years old for every thousand people will increase from 1.8 to 4.5.
(2) The number of high-quality invention patents per 10,000 population will increase from 6.3 to 12.
(3) The ratio of the increased value of core industries in the digital economy in GDP will increase from 7.8% to 10%.
(4) Carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP will reduce by 18 percent.
(5) Energy consumption per unit of GDP will reduce by 13.5 percent.
From these five indicators, it is clear that the three main fundamental variables and driving forces in the 5-years-plan are populations, technology, and a sustainable environment.
In terms of the limited space and length, this article will introduce the main focus in the outline of technological development. First, China will focus on seven sections of technology, such as the new generation of artificial intelligence, quantum information, brain science, etc. Second, the emerging industries that correspond to these seven technologies will need to develop, including biotechnology, new energy resources, new information technology, etc. Another main focus in this section is to promote the manufacturing industry in eight aspects. Moreover, the deeper integration of digital technology and the real economy will also become the main goal for China to achieve. All of these promotions and developments will create many job opportunities for the younger generation.
Besides technology, the population aging resulted from the decreased population is also the main problem to address. In 2016, the newly-born population was about 17.9 million, but in 2019, it decreased to about 15 million. With this trend, in 2050, approximately 30 percent of the population will be older people over the age of 65 years. In this outline, the Chinese government plans to share some pressure and cost of raising children by building large-scale community service infrastructure in 150 cities and exploring the transformation of the city’s public resources for children’s outdoor activities. As for the older people, the government also plans to establish a support system and network to promote their quality of life, such as providing free day-care service in communities, adding anti-skid devices and so on.
Lastly, the outline also includes detailed plans to develop the metropolitan area network that consisted of nearby cities and build more high-speed rails to connect cities within the network, promoting efficiency and lowering the cost. Also, the outline specifies the general direction of agriculture development and new energy resources, such as wind electricity. 
Besides the aspects mentioned above, the the14th Five-Year Plan and the Outline of the Vision Goals for the Year 2035 also include detailed development plans of medical resources, economic, education, legislation, culture, security, national defense, and so on. From the plan, it is clear that China is trying to construct a more green and sustainable economic development. At the same time, it also shows that China has also an ambitious and comprehensive goal for the country’s future development.
Sources:
- https://www.china-briefing.com/news/what-to-expect-in-chinas-14th-five-year-plan-decoding-the-fifth-plenum-communique/
- https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF11684
- https://www.cfr.org/blog/chinas-quest-self-reliance-fourteenth-five-year-plan
- https://new.qq.com/omn/20210315/20210315A0ANI400.html
- https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_11724487
- https://b23.tv/74IZJj
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