China’s Xi Jinping outlines five-year plan at closed-door party meeting

Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech on Monday on the opening day of a major meeting of the ruling Communist Party to approve a draft plan laying out its goals for the country over the next five years.

A short dispatch from the official Xinhua News Agency said Mr Xi “expounded on the party leadership’s draft proposals” for the next five-year plan for national economic and social development, which will cover 2026-2030.

It did not provide any details.

The latest plan comes at a time of growing challenges and uncertainty for China, including a persistently sluggish economy, foreign restrictions on its access to the latest technologies and high tariffs imposed on its exports to the United States.

A Xinhua editorial said that the plan should focus on “high-quality” development and technological innovation, while also ensuring national security is protected and the benefits of economic growth are spread fairly and more widely.

“There will be hardships and obstacles on our way forward, and we may encounter major tests,” the editorial said in discussing economic and national security goals. “We must be prepared to deal with a series of new risks and challenges.”

Analysts and investors are watching the meeting to look for clues about how the plan will balance economic and security interests, and to what extent the plan will call for structural changes to boost consumer spending and manage an ageing society.

This week’s four-day meeting brings together about 200 voting members and 170 alternate members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.

The body will approve the draft five-year plan, though full details likely will not be released until it is formally approved at the legislature’s next annual meeting, expected in March.

Ahead of the meeting, the Defence Ministry announced late last week that nine senior officers suspected of corruption had been expelled from the Communist Party.

Eight were members of the Central Committee, and their removal from the party allows replacements to be named to the committee.