In a wide-ranging interview with Global Times, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez describes China’s Five-Year Plans (FYPs) as democratic, people-centred, and grounded in material reality. He emphasises that China’s success in planning stems from its ability to align governance with popular needs and long-term strategy. “China is known globally for its effective governance and for its record of keeping its promises”, he notes, citing the 13th FYP’s targeted poverty alleviation campaign as a key example of practical planning based on extensive grassroots research.
Carlos stresses that these plans are not top-down decrees but involve widespread consultation, making them highly democratic and responsive to the needs of the people.
China’s five-year plans are well-received by the people because they are based on extensive consultation with the people, and are responsive to the needs, wishes and aspirations of the people. Every plan is based on discussions with, and feedback from, the people. In that sense, the plans are highly democratic, and accord with Chinese emphasis that “the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” The basic methodology of the mass line – from the masses, to the masses – has been well employed by the government and the Party in devising goals and plans.
China’s evolving development strategy, he argues, is responsive to shifting realities. Early plans focused on light industry and technological catch-up; today, priorities include green energy, advanced manufacturing, and digitisation. “Quality, rather than quantity, has become a more important feature of the country’s growth”, he observes.
Carlos credites President Xi Jinping with combining short-, medium-, and long-term planning rooted in the principles of common prosperity and ecological sustainability. Furthermore, Xi’s strategic thinking increasingly has global applicability, as seen in initiatives like the Belt and Road and the Global Development Initiative.
Contrasting China’s approach with the short-termism of Western governments, Carlos points out that, unlike the West’s shareholder-driven model, China’s system prioritises the long-term interests of the people. “Ultimately, the ‘institutional advantage’ is the political power of the working people, and the fact that, in China, people come before profit.”
GT: In China, 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. Why do you think China places significant emphasis on scientific formulation and consistent implementation of five-year plans?
Martinez: China is known globally for its effective governance and for its record of keeping its promises. Its objectives and plans are developed over a long period of time, and are firmly grounded in material reality and the needs and aspirations of the people.
For example, China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) codified the central leadership’s poverty-reduction decision into the state will that is operable in practice. The targeted poverty alleviation campaign included sending officials to the countryside to identify the communities, families and individuals living in extreme poverty. Once the “facts on the ground” were established, a comprehensive plan was developed – at national, provincial, county and village levels – to sustainably lift everyone out of extreme poverty, so that they had a steady income, along with guaranteed housing, food, clothing, education, healthcare, modern energy and running water.
China keeps its promises, and it does so by mobilizing enormous resources toward key projects. In 2020, President Xi announced the country’s commitment to peaking its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030. This goal informed the current (14th) five-year plan, and appropriate targets were set at every level, throughout the country.
In summary, China develops plans that are realistic and flexible, that meet both the short-term and long-term needs of the people and that contribute to the country’s overall strategy. Once the blueprint is agreed and established, different parts and levels of the government work closely with the central government, with state-owned enterprises, private businesses, educational institutions, as well as community organizations and NGOs to implement the plan. The whole country works together to realize an agenda that aligns with the collective interest. This embodies the spirit of socialism.
GT: Chinese President Xi once stressed that “if a blueprint is good, factually based, scientifically sound and well-received by the people we should keep working on it, one administration after another, and the outcome of our work will be real and appreciated and remembered by the people.” How do you understand the key words – “factually based, scientifically sound and well-received by the people”? Considering these characteristics, why are China’s five-year plans considered “good blueprints”?
Martinez: China’s five-year plans are well-received by the people because they are based on extensive consultation with the people, and are responsive to the needs, wishes and aspirations of the people. Every plan is based on discussions with, and feedback from, the people. In that sense, the plans are highly democratic, and accord with Chinese emphasis that “the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.” The basic methodology of the mass line – from the masses, to the masses – has been well employed by the government and the Party in devising goals and plans.
Moreover, China’s five-year plans reflect a constantly shifting material reality. China’s development needs have changed beyond recognition. At the start of Reform and Opening Up, China was, technologically, quite a backward country, and its economic strategy reflected the need to leverage “latecomer’s advantage,” focusing on light industry and learning technology and management techniques from the advanced capitalist countries. Now, China is a world leader in several important areas of science and technology, including renewable energy, telecommunications, space exploration, advanced industry and more. As such, its planning has become much more focused on new quality productive forces, and quality, rather than quantity, has become a more important feature of the country’s growth.
It should also be mentioned that five-year plans align with even longer-term strategic planning. For example, the 14th Five-Year Plan lays the foundations for achieving socialist modernization by 2035, meaning that China will have a per capita income equivalent to that of a medium-level developed country, along with world-class standards of education, health, environmental protection, and cultural and sporting excellence. Furthermore, the 14th plan marks the beginning of China’s march toward its Second Centenary Goal of building a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful. So, when we talk about “good blueprints,” we are talking about 30-year blueprints as well as five-year blueprints.
GT: During his time working in local areas, Xi organized in-depth research on medium-term and long-term development strategies and formulated plans, resulting in a series of valuable ideological assets and rich practical achievements, such as the 15-year strategy for Xiamen, the “3820” strategic project for Fuzhou and the “Double Eight Strategy” for Zhejiang Province. How do you view Xi’s strategic thinking?
Martinez: Throughout his entire political career, Xi’s strategic thinking has combined short-term, medium-term and long-term perspectives while maintaining a close connection to the higher goals and principles of Chinese socialism. These principles include poverty alleviation, improving people’s living standards, creating common prosperity, remaining people-centered, constructing an ecological civilization, defending China’s sovereignty and promoting peace.
What’s more, Xi’s strategic thought has become increasingly global in scope. In Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, common prosperity is a notion that applies to the whole world; in China’s vision, all peoples and all countries can enjoy a better life, enjoy peace and develop in an ecologically sustainable way. The nations of the world are one family in which every family member can thrive, and China’s global public goods – the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative – provide a framework to support this. So, in that sense, President Xi’s strategic thinking has global importance and applicability, and people around the world can benefit a great deal from studying it.
GT: If you were to offer advice on the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, what would be your most important advice?
Martinez: It seems to me that the direction China is pursuing is essentially correct: accelerating its green energy transition; developing its high-technology sector; maintaining a focus on the real economy and rejecting the path of financialization; nurturing critical industries such as electric vehicles and semiconductors; building further efficiency in the agricultural sector; expanding physical infrastructure; continuing mutually-beneficial trade and investment relationships with the rest of the world; all while promoting common prosperity, increasing incomes, creating high-quality jobs, improving healthcare, education and social welfare.
GT: There is a viewpoint that, unlike the rigid planned economy, China’s five-year planning strategy has actually become a “more responsive model.” What are your thoughts on this? How does China’s five-year development planning strategy achieve a balance between long-term goals and flexibility? Compared to the feasibility issues often seen in the presidential addresses or development strategies of some Western countries, China consistently turns good blueprints into reality, what institutional advantages does this reflect? What insights do you think this can provide to Western countries?
Martinez: Yes, China’s planning has become more flexible, and, to a considerable degree, it is indicative rather than prescriptive. What’s particularly interesting is how new technologies such as big data, machine learning and internet-of-things are increasingly being used in China to provide faster and more effective feedback loops, such that economic plans can be updated and resources reallocated extremely quickly.
In economic terms, the great advantage of China’s socialist system is that it allows the country to mobilize tremendous resources in order to accomplish major initiatives. The government, state-owned enterprises and private companies all work together in the shared ecosystem of a socialist market economy, regulated by the state and adhering to a high-level plan. China’s system ensures that the most important decisions concerning allocation of capital are made in the long-term interests of the people, not in the short-term interests of capital.
Capital in the West is increasingly “impatient.” Over the last few decades, it has moved to a shareholder-driven model in which investors demand quick returns. Such a model does not provide a supportive environment for long-term planning, therefore plans are proposed and then simply forgotten about. China’s model is much more democratic: Plans are developed on the basis of extensive discussions over the course of a certain period, and the resulting document becomes a blueprint for action that people know about, contribute to and expect to see positive results from.
Ultimately, the “institutional advantage” is the political power of the working people, and the fact that, in China, people come before profit.
