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Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, October 25, 2019. The Fifth Plenum of the Nineteenth Party Congress will be held October 26-29. Photo: Reuters

China sets date for top Communist Party meeting for first five-year plan since pandemic

  • China’s 14th five-year plan will lay out the blueprint for economic and social development targets for 2021-25
  • State media report says plenum will pass new working regulations of the Central Committee
Beijing has announced a date for its most important annual political meeting at which it will roll out a framework for its next five-year economic and social development plan.

“The meeting has decided that the Fifth Plenum of the Nineteenth Communist Party Congress will be held from October 26 to 29 in Beijing,” state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday evening.

The plenum will see a blueprint of the 14th five-year plan endorsed by hundreds of members of the party’s elite.

In addition to the next five-year plan for 2021-25, the conclave will also roll out a midterm economic strategy called the “2035 vision”, the Xinhua report said, citing decisions from Monday’s meeting by the Politburo, a 25-strong decision-making body of the party led by President Xi Jinping, who is also party general secretary.

The plenum is expected to be attended by more than 300 full and alternate members of the party’s Central Committee.

China is the only major economy that publishes a five-year policy plan and has been doing so since 1953, in a tradition borrowed from the former Soviet Union. China’s own plans are broad strategic guidelines unlike Moscow’s previously detailed command economy production worksheets.

China’s 14th five-year plan will lay out the blueprint for economic and social development targets for the period and comes as Beijing prepares the country to deal with growing hostilities abroad and economic uncertainty at home.

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The coronavirus pandemic has also forced Beijing to drop its annual economic growth target. Earlier this year, China’s top leaders including Xi floated the idea of a new economic concept called the “dual-circulation” strategy, which would focus more on the domestic economy.

The strategy was announced at a time when global trade is shrinking after the coronavirus outbreak. China’s major trade partners, notably the United States, are hardening their attitude towards the nation over issues ranging from trade and technology, ideology and the geopolitical front, casting deep shadow over the country’s future position in the global economy.

The readout on Monday added that the plenum would pass a new set of working regulations of the Central Committee that would seek to further concentrate power at the top.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Date set for plenum to lay out next 5-year plan
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