China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) presents a balancing act of human and technical development. The two pillars are part of a strategy of integration, where technical advances favor human-centered progress; meaning full employment through enforced human inputs in manufacturing, services, and agriculture, as well as in technical Research and Development.

Continued R&D will have a new meaning in this human-centered development strategy.

Human Development Focus

The Plan prioritizes improving people’s wellbeing, expanding social welfare, and addressing key societal needs such as education, healthcare, elderly care, and employment. Policies are designed to promote high-quality and full employment, refine income distribution, and expand the middle-income group, ensuring that economic growth benefits the population broadly. The plan also emphasizes common prosperity and aims to resolve pressing issues like childcare, housing, and social assistance.​

Technical Development Focus

Simultaneously, the plan places a major emphasis on technological self-reliance and innovation, especially in critical sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum technology, and advanced manufacturing, i.e., technology-assisted manufacturing.

The Plan intends to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies, reduce reliance on foreign inputs, and build a modern industrial system resilient to external shocks, i.e., foreign interferences, à la tariffs- and sanction-wars emanating from the west, notably from the United States.

This strategy is to be enhanced by stronger R&D initiatives which, in turn, requires expanding R&D funding. This shift in R&D emphasis aims at supporting emerging industries, and closer integration of science and industry, strengthening China’s autonomy and independence from foreign influences.

In Summary

The 15th Five-Year Plan positions both human and technical development as mutually reinforcing. Industrial modernization and technological advancement are seen as essential for improving living standards and ensuring national security, while social policies are designed to support and empower the workforce driving these changes. The Plan’s guiding principle is a “people-centered” approach, but this is closely linked to the need for technological progress and economic resilience.​

Th Plan seeks advancing both human and technical development in parallel, recognizing that each is crucial for achieving sustainable, high-quality growth and national prosperity with shared benefits for all.​

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst, regular author for Global Research, and a former Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image: The Qingdao Qianwan Container Terminal in Qingdao City, east China’s Shandong Province, November 8, 2024. /VCG

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