WHEN CHINA’S leaders gather this week in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing, they will announce their budget and their big economic goals for 2021. But they will also cast their gaze farther into the future, unveiling a detailed plan for the next five years, and a vaguer one for development until 2035. China has travelled far from its command-economy roots, but its policy-planning system, an inheritance from the Soviet Union, is a potent vestige. This will be the Communist Party’s 14th five-year plan for China. Running until 2025, it will feature targets for economic growth and objectives such as making the country greener, more innovative and safer from foreign pressure. What exactly are China’s five-year plans and what can we expect from the new one?
