China five-year plan: state media invites public submissions as Xi Jinping calls for ‘wisdom of the people’
- Chinese citizens are being encouraged to share their views via state media on the country’s 14th five-year plan, which covers the period 2021-25
- Social welfare, employment, education and the environment have emerged as the main areas of concern for regular Chinese
The People’s Daily has launched a website to take suggestions from the public, which can be as short as five words and no longer than 1,000 characters.
Social welfare, employment, education and the environment have emerged as the main areas of concern for regular Chinese, with a considerable amount of people also advocating for large infrastructure projects – like railways – for local economies that have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
While it is far from certain the proposals will feed into the five-year plan, it follows comments from President Xi Jinping last week that the policy document should reflect the “wisdom of the people”.
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China’s 14th five-year plan will lay out the blueprint for economic and development targets for the period covering 2021-25, and comes as Beijing readies the country to deal with growing hostilities abroad and economic uncertainty at home.