Five-year plans of China

Medium and long-term planning are central to coordinating state activity across many policy areas in China and China's Five-Year Plans are one of the most prominent examples of this approach. Through the Five-Year Plans, the CCP and the government establish their policy priorities. The initial formulation of a Five-Year Plan begins with fairly short, general guidelines prepared by the CCP Central Committee in the fall prior to the start of a Plan period. These plans establish national priorities and outline how they will be met. ==First Plan (1953–1957)==

Having restored a viable economic base, the leadership under CCP Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai, and other revolutionary veterans sought to implement what they termed a socialist transformation of China. The First Five-Year Plan was deeply influenced by Soviet methodologies and assistance from Soviet planners. Industrial development was the primary goal. It attributed the backwards state of China's economy to contradictions between the developing productive forces and the capitalist relations of production. Agriculture, fishing, and forestry would be collectivized. Regarding commercial and services industries, the approach in the first Five-Year Plan was for the government to buy them out, including through coercing reluctant sellers if necessary. Government control over industry was increased during this period by applying financial pressures and inducements to convince owners of private, modern firms to sell them to the state or convert them into joint public-private enterprises under state control. The Plan strained agricultural production. In terms of economic growth, the First Five-Year Plan was quite successful, especially in those areas emphasized by the Soviet-style development strategy. During this Plan period, China began developing a heavy-industrial base and brought its industrial production above what it had been prior to war. China also raised its agricultural production to above prewar levels, resulting primarily from gains in efficiency brought about by the reorganization and cooperation achieved through cooperative farming. Although urbanization had not been a specific goal of the plan's focus on industrialization, industrialization also prompted extensive urban growth. By 1956, China had completed its socialist transformation of the domestic economy. ==Second Plan (1958–1962)==

This plan was created to accomplish several tasks, including: • Expanding heavy industry in China. • Furthering the cause of socialism by transferring more property to collective ownership. • Encouraging the economic growth of China through industry, agriculture, handicrafts, transportation and commerce. • Cultivating cultural and scientific development of the Chinese people. • Strengthening national defense and improving living standards in China. The Political Bureau of the CCP had determined that gross value of agricultural products should increase 270%; in fact, the gain was a considerably more modest 35%. The country saw increases in capital construction over those observed during the first Five-Year Plan and also saw significant increases in industry (doubling output value) and income (workers and farmers, increase by as much as 30%). However, the Great Leap Forward, which diverted millions of agricultural workers into industry, and the great sparrow campaign, which led to an infestation of locusts, as well as unprecedented natural and weather based issues, caused a huge decrease in food production. Simultaneously, rural officials, under huge pressure to meet their quotas, vastly overstated how much grain was available. Thus, a massive nationwide famine ensued. The policies of the Second Plan's Great Leap Forward departed from the approach in the Soviet-inspired First Plan, which stressed central command and extensive planning. ==Third Plan (1966–1970)==

The Third Plan was originally due early in 1963, but at that time China's economy was too dislocated, as a result of the failure of the Great Leap Forward and four poor harvests to permit any planned operations. No five-year plan ultimately covered the period 1963–1965. As initially conceived, the Third Five Year Plan emphasized further development in China's already more developed coastal areas and a greater focus on consumer goods. It called for enhancing "eating, clothing, and daily use" items (chi, chuan, yong). The turn towards a greater emphasis on developing heavy industries and national defense industries was prompted by the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which increased fears among Chinese leadership that the United States would ultimately invade China. Support among leadership for Mao's proposed Third Front construction increased as a result and changed the direction of the Third Five Year Plan. == Fourth Plan (1971–1975) ==

The Fourth Five Year Plan sought decentralization and prioritized "small scale, indigenous, and labor intensive" development projects over "large scale, foreign, and capital intensive" development. ==Fifth Plan (1976–1980)==

The central government stipulated the 1976–1985 Ten Year Plan Outline of Developing National Economy (Draft) in 1975, which included the 5th Five-Year Plan. In March 1978, the Ten Year Development Outline was amended because the original version in 1975 stipulated that by 1985, steel and petroleum outputs should reach 60 and 250 million tons respectively, and 120 large projects, including 10 steel production bases, nine non-ferrous metal bases, eight coal bases and 10 oil and gas fields, should be built. To achieve these goals, the government would invest 70 billion yuan in infrastructure construction, equaling total national investment over the previous 28 years. These were impossible targets and ran counter to economic development rules. ==Sixth Plan (1981–1985)==

According to China Daily, the 6th Plan was first planned as part of the "Ten Year National Economic Development Plan Outline for 1976–1985" until the State Council decided to redraft the country's mid- and long-term plans in 1980. The 1982 national planning meeting was again mainly focused on the drafting of the Plan. It was only in December that year that the fifth meeting of the 5th National People's Congress officially ratified the Plan. The Sixth Five-Year Plan was the first to address government policy support for solar PV panel manufacturing. Policy support for solar panel manufacturing has been a part of every Five-Year Plan since. ==Seventh Plan (1986–1990)==

In late September 1985, the Conference of CCP Delegates convened to adopt the "Proposal for the Seventh Five Year Plan" which was set to begin in 1986. The proposal demonstrated a shift from direct government control over enterprises to using indirect macroeconomic controls to "establish a new system for the socialist economy." Coastal regions were instructed to focused on "the restructuring of traditional industries, new industries, and consumer goods production." Western regions were to focus on processing and agriculture. In central regions, energy, construction, and minerals were the focus. == Eighth Plan (1991–1995) ==

During the 10th Five-Year Plan, the strategic purpose of planning shifted from narrow, quantitative growth targets to coordinating structural and qualitative changes in economic and social growth targets. ==Eleventh Plan (2006–2010)==

The planning philosophy for the 11th Five-Year Plan was significantly shaped by a mid-term evaluation of the 10th Five-Year Plan. The 11th Five-Year Plan introduced a new category of "binding targets" (yueshuxing zhibiao) intended as government promises. These binding targets have since been used especially in non-economic policy areas like environmental protection and land management. Of 22 targets listed in the 11th Five-Year Plan, eight of them were binding targets. These binding targets were incorporated into the criteria for local cadre performance evaluations. The Plan also reflected a change in terminology to the allocation of administrative resources via "programs" rather than "plans." ==Twelfth Plan (2011–2015)==

The Twelfth Five-Year Guideline was debated in mid-October 2010 at the fifth plenary session of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the same session in which Xi Jinping was selected as Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and the full proposal for the plan was released following the plenum and approved by the National People's Congress on 14 March 2011. The plan shifted emphasis from investment towards consumption It prioritized more equitable wealth distribution, increased domestic consumption, and improved social infrastructure and social safety nets. Improvements in the social safety net were intended to reduce precautionary saving. The plan sought to expand the services industry in order to increase employment and continue urbanization to help raise real wages. ==Thirteenth Plan (2016–2020)==

Continuing themes from the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan also sought to boost the services sector, increase urbanization, and expand the social safety net to reduce precautionary savings. the completion of building a moderately prosperous society, and started the "Made in China 2025" plan. ==Fourteenth Plan (2021–2025)==

The 14th Five-Year Plan was drafted during the fifth plenum of the 19th Central Committee held from 26 to 29 October 2020. Han Wenxiu, the deputy director of the Office of the Central Finance and Economic Commission, said CCP general secretary Xi Jinping had personally led the drafting process through multiple meetings of the Politburo, its standing committee, and the drafting panel that he headed. The Plan was drafted against the backdrop of worsening China–United States relations and the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused China's economy to shrink in the first quarter of 2020 – the first time in 44 years. Continuing themes from the prior two plans, the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan also seeks to boost the services sector, increase urbanization, and expand the social safety net to reduce precautionary savings. The Plan also emphasizes high-tech innovation. == Fifteenth Plan (2026–2030) ==

The 15th five-year plan will cover 2026 to 2030. Planning began in December 2023. It may aim to meet CCP general secretary Xi Jinping's goal of doubling the size of the economy between 2020 and 2035. == See also ==