Since the founding of New China, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has combined the basic theory of Marxism with China’s national conditions, compiled and implemented 14 five-year plans for national economic and social development in accordance with the objective laws of economic and social development, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" is being implemented. The practice of the Party’s leadership in compiling and implementing the five-year plan contains the Party’s unique experience in governing the country and embodies the theoretical and practical innovation of the Party’s leadership in socialist modernization. Standing at the starting point of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s new journey to become a modern and powerful country, profoundly summing up the basic experience of the Party’s leadership in formulating and implementing the five-year plan will help to provide a theoretical and practical basis for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Since the founding of New China, due to the special national conditions, practical limitations and many other factors, the implementation effect of the 14 five-year plans (plans) has both the joy of success and twists and turns, and has made decisive achievements in building a well-off society in an all-round way, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality economic development of China in the "Tenth Five-Year Plan", reflecting the gradual improvement of the effectiveness of our party in governing the country, mainly in the following aspects.
The party led the people to create and develop the core concept of socialist modernization.
The development concepts of the 14 Five-Year Plans have experienced the transformation from the traditional socialist development concept and Socialism with Chinese characteristics development concept to the new era Socialism with Chinese characteristics development concept, which embodies the theoretical innovation of the socialist modernization led by the Party.
The guiding concept of the first five-year plans is dominated by the traditional socialist development concept, which can be summarized as "the general line of transition period" and "the general line of socialist construction". Its core connotation is to realize the transformation from new-democratic industrialization to socialist industrialization with the guarantee of establishing a single public ownership and highly centralized planning system and giving priority to the development of heavy industry as the strategic focus.
The Sixth Five-Year Plan to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan is guided by Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s development concept. The core concept of the Sixth Five-Year Plan to the Tenth Five-Year Plan is "development is the last word", and its core connotation is to improve economic efficiency as the strategic focus, with market-oriented reform and opening up as the basic driving force. The 11th Five-Year Plan to the 12th Five-Year Plan is based on the concept of "Scientific Outlook on Development", which not only emphasizes economic growth, but also pays attention to "people-oriented" sustainable development.
The "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" are guided by the Supreme Leader’s Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought in the new era, and their core is "Five Development Concepts". The development theme is people-centered, the main line of development is to deepen the supply-side structural reform, and the development strategy is based on expanding domestic demand. The goal is to build a well-off society in an all-round way and start a new journey of building a socialist modernized country in an all-round way, and basically realize the long-term goal of socialist modernization by 2035.
The evolution of the above development concept shows that a successful five-year plan (plan) is based on the scientific development concept.There are some mistakes in the first five-year plans. Although the main reason is restricted by historical conditions and practical experience, the deviation of development concept is also an important reason. The formulation and implementation of nine five-year plans (plans) after the reform and opening up, the creation of the "China miracle", the decisive victory of the "fight against poverty" and the timely realization of building a well-off society in an all-round way all show that the scientific and correct development concept is the "baton" to successfully lead practice.
The evolution of the development concept of the Five-year Plan embodies the theoretical and practical exploration of the Party in governing the country under different historical conditions, deepens the Party’s understanding of the laws of socialist construction, and contributes China’s wisdom to world modernization and economic and social development.
The Party has led the people out of a road of independent innovation and development with China characteristics.
The exploration of scientific and technological innovation led by the Party in the 14 Five-Year Plans has experienced the evolution from the formation and slow development of the self-reliant industrial system to the initial formation of the diversified innovation subject pattern, and then to the deepening of the independent innovation system. China has realized the evolution from a weak country in science and technology to a strong country in science and technology, and is moving towards a world science and technology power.
In the first five five-year plans, under the western economic blockade and the severe international political situation, the CPC Central Committee put forward the scientific and technological development policy of "self-reliance first, supplemented by foreign aid", and established a self-reliance oriented industrial innovation system on high-tech complex industries through the traditional national system, which laid an important foundation for the accelerated development of technology after the reform and opening up.
From the "Sixth Five-Year Plan" to the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", the idea of scientific and technological development has undergone an evolution from the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and technology as the primary productive force to the strategy of an innovative country. The promulgation of the Outline of the National Medium-and Long-Term Scientific and Technological Development Plan (2006-2020) and its supporting policies marks a major shift in China’s scientific and technological innovation development strategy from technology introduction to independent innovation. In order to take the road of independent innovation with China characteristics, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "To achieve the goal of’ two hundred years’ and realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, we must adhere to the road of independent innovation with China characteristics, face the world’s scientific and technological frontier, face the main battlefield of the economy, face the major needs of the country, accelerate scientific and technological innovation in various fields, and grasp the opportunities of global scientific and technological competition."
From the 13th Five-Year Plan to the 14th Five-Year Plan, it faces the trend of "anti-globalization", "de-industrialization" and the challenge of "new industrial revolution". Under the guidance of the idea of leading all-round innovation with scientific and technological innovation, the development strategy of science and technology has shifted to supporting the construction of a modern powerful country with scientific and technological innovation, and the quantity and quality have risen together with scientific and technological innovation. China has ushered in a leap from a scientific and technological power to a scientific and technological power. The ranking of China’s global innovation index rose from 29th in 2015 to 14th in 2020, surpassing Britain and ranking first in middle-income economies. In 2020, major breakthroughs will be made in cutting-edge national defense industries such as Chang ‘e-4 detector, Tianwen-1 detector and Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system. At present, China’s scientific and technological innovation is changing from "following" to "running together" and "leading" in the world, becoming one of the most important R&D innovation centers in the world, laying a solid foundation for building Socialism with Chinese characteristics into a modern power in an all-round way.
Scientific and technological innovation is the fundamental reliance of the country’s strength and the inexhaustible motive force for the party to govern the country. Scientific and technological innovation, as a strategic support to improve social productivity, international competitiveness, comprehensive national strength and national security, must be placed at the core of the overall national development.The exploration of the development path of independent innovation with China characteristics in the 14 Five-Year Plans is the practice of the Party’s leadership to promote the modernization of the scientific and technological governance system and governance capacity, and deepens the Party’s understanding of the law of scientific and technological development.
China has successfully embarked on a road of socialist industrialization with China characteristics.
During the first five-year plan period, the party led the people to explore the road of industrialization and experienced the transformation from new-democratic industrialization to socialist industrialization. During the "First Five-Year Plan" period, with the start of socialist industrialization, the party’s exploration of the road to industrialization experienced a transformation from new-democratic industrialization to Soviet socialist industrialization. During the period from the "Second Five-Year Plan" to the early period of the "Fifth Five-Year Plan", although the Communist Party of China (CPC) reflected on the lessons of the Soviet Union’s industrialization road, he also formed some theoretical innovations in dealing with the relationship between accumulation and consumption, China and foreign countries, agriculture and industry, and laid the foundation for the initial development of industrialization, but he did not break through the limitations of single public ownership and planned economy as a whole.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in 1978, the Party’s successful exploration of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s industrialization road was marked by the reform and opening up in the 1980s, the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and sustainable development in the 1990s, the proposal of Scientific Outlook on Development in the new century, and the new development concept put forward by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee, which was divided into three closely related development stages, namely, the late period of the Fifth Five-Year Plan to the early period of the Tenth Five-Year Plan, and the industrialization road with market-oriented reform and opening up as the main contents was initiated. From the late tenth five-year plan to the twelfth five-year plan, we will focus on exploring new industrialization with informationization, people-oriented, energy saving and emission reduction and sustainable development as the main contents; Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core and guided by the new development concept, the 12th Five-Year Plan has been successfully completed, and the international competitiveness of China’s industry has been significantly enhanced. In 2015, China’s high-tech products accounted for 25.8% of manufacturing exports, which not only exceeded the levels of Russian Federation (13.8%), Brazil (12.3%) and India (7.5%), but also exceeded the levels of the United States (19.0%), Japan (16.8%) and France (16.7%), profoundly affecting the global industrial chain, supply chain and value chain.
The "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan" take the construction of ecological civilization as the main content, and explore the new industrialization road of "five modernizations" coordinated by greening. In 2018, China’s industrial added value (US dollar price in 2010) accounted for about 21.7% of the world, 1.56 times and 1.19 times that of the United States and the European Union, respectively. The proportion of goods import and export in the global market has increased from 11.9% in 2015 to 13.1% in 2019, ranking first in the world. China continues to maintain its position as the world’s largest manufacturing country and the largest country in goods trade, laying a solid foundation for moving towards an industrial power.
The exploration of socialist industrialization under the leadership of the Party in the 14 Five-Year Plans is an important part of the Party’s governance, a theoretical and practical innovation that the Party combines Marxist theory with China’s industrialization practice, and a pioneering work in the history of socialist industrialization in China and the world.
The party led the people to explore a government economic management model that conforms to the national conditions and the world development trend.
The five-year plan not only pays attention to the country’s economic development, but also attaches importance to economic system construction and economic system reform. Deepening reform and opening up and promoting institutional innovation are important components of the five-year plan and an important main line.
As far as macroeconomic management is concerned, in the first five-year plan, China experienced a transition from a new-democratic economic system to a highly centralized planned economic system, and the government’s economic function experienced a transition from the combination of planned management and market regulation based on various economic components to the administrative command plan based on single public ownership. During the implementation of the "First Five-Year Plan", the ownership structure of China’s economy gradually formed a single public ownership, and the plan became the only factor in the allocation of resources. The government used administrative means to force the allocation of manpower, material resources and financial resources throughout the country, ensuring the priority allocation of resources to heavy industry. The government has become the "all-round" allocator of economic resources, the national plan plays a fundamental and decisive role in the allocation of resources, and the space and scope for the market mechanism to play its role have gradually declined or even been cancelled.
Since the third plenary session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, China has experienced a transition from a transitional system combining planned management with market regulation to a socialist market economy system. Especially after the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China formally put forward the goal of market economy reform and emphasized the basic role of market regulation in 1992, planned management gradually changed from a mandatory plan to a guiding plan. The government gradually withdrew from the field of microeconomic management and gave way to market regulation. This also verifies Deng Xiaoping’s assertion that both planning and market are means to manage the economy. The planned economy has disappeared, but the five-year plan still exists and develops.
Government’s planned management and administrative intervention are playing an irreplaceable role in making up for "market failure" on the premise of maintaining the basic (decisive) role of market regulation. Under the socialist market economy system, it is necessary to make a five-year plan, but the five-year plan is more macroscopic, strategic and instructive, and all kinds of special planning, spatial planning and regional planning must clearly define the boundaries of their functions.
The areas where market mechanism fails and government efficiency is higher are the scope of government economic activities. The transformation of government’s economic function is a prerequisite for the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation. In the rapid change of economic system, the government’s economic function has changed from "all-round" to "efficient", and the market’s function of resource allocation has changed from denying the market’s role to playing its basic role and then playing a decisive role, which reflects the party’s deepening understanding of strengthening macroeconomic management.Giving full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources and giving full play to the role of the government is the fundamental follow-up for the future party leaders to formulate and implement the five-year plan, and it is also a major task for the party to govern the country.
[Author: China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) School of Marxism, China Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Contemporary China]
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