By: Chinese Ambassador to Liberia, Yin Chengwu
Monrovia, Liberia – The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened its fourth plenary session in Beijing from October 20 to 23, 2025. Participants at the session deliberated over and adopted the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the CPC for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development. It outlined the blueprint for China’s socialist modernization drive in the next five years.
The Five-Year Plans exemplify the CPC’s governance success. Every five years, the CPC formulates a new Five-Year Plan to guide the nation’s economic and social development. Since the 1950s, China has formulated fourteen Five-Year Plans. By implementing these Five-Year Plans, China has led a series of incremental achievements to tremendous progress, profoundly transforming the nation and improving people’s lives.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, particularly during the 13th and 14th Five-Year Plan periods, China has achieved the historic goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Economic strength, scientific and technological capabilities, and composite national strength have reached new heights, ushering in a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects.
History has shown that while the formulation of medium- and long-term plans is not unique to China, the long-standing commitment and remarkable results China has achieved are unparalleled globally. The Five-Year Plan has become a defining feature of China’s socialist modernization, deeply embedded within the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The 15th Five-Year Plan is highly significant for China in achieving socialist modernization. Firstly, the period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan will serve as a key link between the successful past and the promising future. Socialist modernization can only be realized through a historical process of gradual and ongoing development. It requires the unremitting hard work of one generation after another.
The 15th Five-Year Plan period will serve as a critical stage in building on past successes to break new ground for basically achieving socialist modernization. This judgment is based on the historic mission of this period. The 20th National Party Congress set forth the goal of basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035. China has laid solid foundations for this by getting off to a good start in the first five years, which have made up the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
The period covered by the 15th Five-Year Plan will be critical as China works to reinforce these foundations and push ahead on all fronts toward this goal. A well-conceived 15th Five-Year Plan and its effective implementation will ensure China has even stronger foundations for basically achieving socialist modernization by 2035.
Secondly, the 15th Five-Year Plan will outline a realistic and forward-looking overall approach, key principles, major goals, and strategic tasks for economic and social development. Based on the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the CPC for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, in pursuing economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will stay committed to fully implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and adhere to the following guiding principles: upholding the Party’s overall leadership, putting the people first, pursuing high-quality development, comprehensively deepening reform, promoting interplay between an efficient market and a well-functioning government, and ensuring both development and security.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will achieve the following major objectives: significant achievements in high-quality development, substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance and strength, fresh breakthroughs in further deepening reform comprehensively, notable cultural and ethical progress across society, further improvements in quality of life, major new strides in advancing the Beautiful China Initiative, and further advances in strengthening the national security shield.
Therefore, China will build a modernized industrial system and reinforce the foundations of the real economy, achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, build a robust domestic market, move faster to develop a high-standard socialist market economy, promote high-standard opening up, accelerate agricultural and rural modernization, refine China’s regional economic layout, inspire the cultural creativity of the entire nation, work harder to ensure and improve public wellbeing, accelerate the green transition in all areas of economic and social development, modernize China’s national security system and capacity and modernize national defense and the armed forces.
All of these carry forward concepts and approaches from the 14th Five-Year plan while taking into account the development and changes in China’s domestic and international landscape over the next five years, thereby allow China to secure decisive progress toward basically achieving socialist modernization.
The 15th Five-Year Plan will unlock new opportunities for the world. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s economic aggregate continuously reached new milestones, and consolidated its position as the world’s second-largest consumer market. With an average annual contribution of around 30 percent to global economic growth, China has remained the most stable and reliable anchor for world economic development. Based on the 15th Five-Year Plan, China will continue to pursue economic development as its central task, with high-quality development as its main focus, and make new and important contributions to global economic development.
China will remain firmly committed to expanding high-standard opening up, steadily expand institutional opening up, advance the standardization in the national comprehensive demonstration zones for expanding opening-up in the services sector. China will share in the opportunities of its development with the world. A more modernized China will surely bring more stability and positive energy to the world. A more reformed and open China will surely open up broader prospects for its cooperation with the world.
China is willing to work with Liberia, guided by the strategic consensus of the two heads of state, to strengthen the synergy between China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and Liberia’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development, to ensure the delivery of the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit, and to continuously advance China-Liberia strategic partnership!
