At the upcoming Fourth Plenum and beyond, we can expect to see the CCP take techno-nationalism to a new level.
By Jamie Daves and Jianli Yang – Oct 16, 2025
The forthcoming Fourth Plenum of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not be an ordinary policy meeting. Scheduled for October 20–23 in Beijing, it will formally initiate the drafting process for China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, which will guide national development from 2026 to 2030.
To understand why this is so consequential, it is worth pausing briefly to explain the nature and significance of China’s Five-Year Plan system. Since the 1950s, these centrally formulated plans have served as the backbone of China’s economic governance. In the early decades of the People’s Republic, Five-Year Plans were instruments of Soviet-style command planning, setting production quotas and dictating investment priorities.
Since the era of reform and opening in the late 1970s, the plans have evolved into hybrid strategic frameworks that combine political direction, indicative targets, and policy coordination. They are neither rigid blueprints nor mere guidelines. Instead, they act as authoritative signals that shape the behavior of ministries, provincial governments, state-owned enterprises, private firms, and increasingly foreign investors. …. [Continue Reading]
Source: https://thediplomat.com/2025/10/chinas-next-five-year-plan-will-bet-on-technology-at-home-and-abroad/