Central Committee highlights key role of 'dual-circulation' development pattern

A key Party meeting that concluded on Thursday has set specific targets for China to basically become a modern socialist country by 2035, stressing the need to step up the building of the new development pattern of "dual circulation" in the next five years.

China's economic and technological strength, and its composite national strength will rise significantly by 2035, and it will also make major progress in developing core technologies in key areas and become a global leader in innovation, according to a communique released after the four-day Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made a speech at the session, which adopted the committee's proposals for the formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035.

The communique said that the value of China's gross domestic product is expected to reach 100 trillion yuan ($14.9 trillion) this year, and the country will achieve sustained and healthy economic development in the next five years with a focus on higher quality growth.

Among an array of objectives for the country to basically achieve socialist modernization by 2035, China will build up a modern economy with new industrialization, IT application, urbanization and agricultural modernization basically achieved, according to the communique.

China's per capita GDP will reach the level of moderately developed countries, with a significant reduction in disparities in urban-rural development, in development between different regions and in living standards, and the modernization of national defense and the military will be basically achieved, it said.

The new opening-up structure will be shaped with substantial growth of the country's strengths in international economic cooperation and competition, the communique said, adding that carbon emissions will steadily decline as environmentally friendly ways of work and life will be advanced to cover all areas of society.

Participants in the session stressed that China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development at present and for the foreseeable future, but there are new developments in both the opportunities and challenges facing the country.

In the five-year period starting from 2021, China will comprehensively deepen reform in its pursuit of a high-level socialist market economy, advance coordinated regional development, and prioritize agricultural development and rural vitalization, the communique said.

It will nurture a strong domestic market and accelerate the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic market as the mainstay while the domestic and international markets complement each other, the communique said, underlining the importance of comprehensively spurring consumption and expanding investment.

The document also noted that China will pursue higher-level opening-up, promote international cooperation and explore new prospects for win-win results. It will also advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and actively participate in the reform of the global economic governance system, it said.

It noted that China will take the real economy as the focus of its economic development, unswervingly build up its strength in manufacturing, quality and cyberspace, and build a digital country.

Participants in the session called for sticking to the central role of innovation in the country's modernization drive and making technological self-sufficiency a "strategic support" for national development with an aim to achieve major breakthroughs in key technologies by 2035, according to the communique.

China will further improve the quality of people's lives, promote the country's cultural soft power and advance green development, the communique said.

The meeting stressed the need to coordinate development and security, and called for efforts to prevent and defuse risks that might affect the country's modernization process, and ensure national economic security as well as social stability, the document said.

While calling for speeding up the modernization of national defense and the military, the meeting also underlined the need to strengthen combat readiness to improve the strategic capability of safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, it said.

China is committed to maintaining lasting prosperity and stability in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions as well as advancing the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and national reunification, the document said.

The country will also uphold peace, development and win-win cooperation and advance the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, it added.

The 14th Five-Year Plan will be formulated based on the proposals of the CPC Central Committee, and the final blueprint will be submitted to lawmakers for approval when the National People's Congress, the nation's top legislature, holds its annual session next year.

The 19th CPC Central Committee will hold a news conference on Friday in Beijing to introduce the guiding principles of the key Party meeting.

Achievements during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period

China's gross domestic product expected to exceed 100 trillion yuan ($14.9 trillion) in 2020

55.75 million rural residents lifted out of poverty

More than 60 million new urban jobs created

Annual grain output remained above 650 million metric tons for five consecutive years

Basic medical insurance covers over 1.3 billion people

Basic old-age insurance covers nearly 1 billion people