Leader Xi Jinping outlines new five-year plan for China

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered a speech Monday on the opening day of a major meeting of the ruling Communist Party to approve a draft plan setting out its goals for the country for the next five years.

A short dispatch from the official Xinhua news agency said Xi “outlined the Party leadership’s draft proposals” for the next five-year national economic and social development plan, which will cover 2026-2030. He provided no details.

The latest plan comes at a time of growing challenges and uncertainties for China, including a an economy still slowing downforeign restrictions on its access to the latest technologies and high tariffs imposed on its exports to the United States.

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

“There will be difficulties and obstacles in our path, and we may encounter major trials,” the editorial said, referring to economic and national security goals. “We must be prepared to face a range 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 aging society.

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

The body will approve the draft five-year plan, although full details likely won’t be released before its formal approval at the legislature’s next annual meeting, scheduled for March.

Before the meeting, the Defense Ministry announced late last week that nine senior officers suspected of corruption had been expelled of the Communist Party. Eight were members of the Central Committee and their exclusion from the party made it possible to appoint replacements to the committee.