China's Five-Year Plans indispensable for long-term high-quality development: former senior diplomat

China's Five-Year Plans, working as a visible hand of good governance, is indispensable for the country's long-term high-quality development, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations.

China's annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from Wednesday to Thursday, setting priorities for economic work in 2026, a year marking the beginning of China's 15th Five-Year Plan for national socioeconomic development in the 2026-2030 period.

In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Shanghai, Mahbubani commended China as a country with a comprehensive long-term strategy.

"The first person to alert me to the fact that China thinks long term and strategically was Henry Kissinger, and in fact I got his permission to cite him in my book 'Has China Won' for saying that 'It's China that has a comprehensive long-term strategy.' At the same time, I think what you mentioned about the Five-Year Plans is very much part of that long-term strategy," Mahbubani said, referring to late U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1923-2023).

"I do remember that there was a time when many economists were saying, especially when the Cold War ended. They said 'Five-Year Plans are a thing of the past. That's so old fashion. You must get rid of them. Let the markets do everything.' Right? That was the conventional wisdom. But now look at this, now we learn that markets alone are not enough to make long-term decisions. The markets don't think long term, which is why you need Five-Year Plans," he said.

"There's a very (well-known economist). He's a good friend of mine. He is in Harvard, Amartya Sen. He said for countries to develop, you need the invisible hand of free markets and the visible hand of good governance. And that's the secret of China's development model that it has an invisible hand of free markets, some of the competition in EVs and batteries is so astounding, vicious competition, amazing. And yet, at the same time, you still have a strong guiding hand of the government, making sure that the markets don't go off course," said the former senior diplomat.

"So that's why I think it's good that China is continuing with its Five-Year Plans. And then for the next one, I think the emphasis on high-quality development is a very wise decision, because right now it's not just about growth per se, it's about the quality of the growth, impact on the environment, impact on people's lives, and it's good to look at everything comprehensively," he continued.

The Five-Year Plans are a set of social and economic development initiatives that map out China's strategies for growth in a five-year period. The plans usually include numerical growth targets such as annual gross domestic product (GDP) goals and offer policy guidelines for reforms. The first Five-Year Plan was released in 1953.

China's Five-Year Plans indispensable for long-term high-quality development: former senior diplomat

China's Five-Year Plans indispensable for long-term high-quality development: former senior diplomat

China's expanding ties with the Global South have pushed trade growth far beyond the global average despite the tariff pressure from the U.S., according to experts.

"Whilst the Trump tariffs ultimately led to a significant drop-off in Chinese exports to the United States and vice versa, the trading relationships across much of the rest of the world continue to grow, and China's trading relationships across the Belt and Road Initiative countries, as well as with the Global South, more broadly speaking, has grown at rates far greater than global trade growth as a whole. And we see that evidenced by the latest data. When we break that down, we see that has been underpinned by the developments in high-technology products in particular, whether it's EVs, whether it's even in semiconductors, as well as photovoltaic panels, etc.," said Dr. Warwick Powell, an adjunct professor at the Queensland University of Technology, in a TV interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on Thursday.

"And you've got to look at the places where the growth is taking place. Africa, I think, is a very interesting case in point, because the kinds of things that China has been exporting and expanding in terms of its exports are all about African economic development -- its machinery, its energy systems, its technology, and this really goes to delivering on China's broader strategic ambition as an emerging great power to be an enabling great power, supporting the development of its partners around the world," he added.

Qian Jun, executive dean of International School of Finance at Fudan University, attributed the trade growth to Chinese firms' endeavor to tap into key regions like ASEAN, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

"The main increase of export comes from, as we have discussed, these new areas: The ASEAN economy -- southeast Asia remains the most important trading partner -- and also Latin America, the Middle East, and these [other such] new regions. So, the exporters of the Chinese companies are also very good at adjusting their destinies, their strategies, how to market their goods and services, so that the reliance on the U.S., for example, has gone down a lot," Qian said.

China's trade momentum increasingly powered by Global South: experts