Newly adopted development planning law to better serve China's development goals: legislative affairs official

The newly passed National Development Planning Law will better support China's development objectives by ensuring the continuity, stability, and authority of national development plans through institutional measures, according to a senior legislative affairs official in Beijing.

The law was adopted on Thursday by the National People's Congress (NPC) , the supreme organ of state power, at the closing meeting of its annual session. It will govern how the country formulates and carries out its five-year development plans, formalizing a system that has long guided the world's second-largest economy. Drawing on China's long-standing experience in national development planning, the law codifies proven practices into a legal framework and aims to reinforce the strategic guiding role of national development plans.

Tong Weidong, director of the State Law Department of the Legislative Affairs Commission under the Standing Committee of NPC, said the law will help legalize and standardize national development planning.

"Formulating and implementing five-year plans have long been the 'winning formula' behind China's rapid economic growth and enduring social stability. China has implemented 14 consecutive five-year plans, achieving remarkable success and accumulating valuable experience that must be carefully reviewed. This session of the NPC deliberated and approved the National Development Planning Law, elevating our long-standing and well-established practices and experience in formulating and implementing national development plans into legal provisions. Strengthening institutional achievements through legislation will promote the legalization and standardization of national development planning," he said.

He said the law will boost the continuity, stability, and authority of national development plans going forward.

"Since the start of reform and opening up, the implementation of every five-year plan has been notably effective. Many plans have even exceeded their targets ahead of schedule. The National Development Planning Law includes provisions to ensure the continuity and stability of national development planning. The law enhances continuity, stability, and authority of national development plans through institutional measures such as stronger policy coordination and resource allocation, stricter procedural requirements for plan adjustments, and greater oversight by the NPC. This provides stable expectations for investment from both domestic and foreign capital," said the official.

Newly adopted development planning law to better serve China's development goals: legislative affairs official

Nicaragua's co-foreign minister Valdrack Jaentschke has warned that militarism must never be allowed to rise again, as Japan's recent moves to lift its arms export ban and revise the pacifist Constitution continue to draw international concern.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials, where Japan's Class-A war criminals from World War II were brought to justice.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Valdrack Jaentschke voiced his concern that today's world order is being undermined by interventionism and other challenges.

"It is necessary for us to remember that after the end of World War II, countries worked hard to build a new international order based on international law. However, regrettably, more than 80 years later, we are seeing that this once explored and attempted order is being challenged by interventionism, a confrontational mindset, and tendencies like 'might makes right.' These are precisely the conditions that gave rise to fascism and militarism in the past, which ultimately led to the tragedy of World War II," he said.

He said the international community has a responsibility to pursue a new international order -- one fundamentally grounded in peace.

"Looking back at the history more than eight decades ago and comparing it with today's reality, it is our responsibility to recognize that the world should, and must, build a new international order that is more just, fairer, rooted in international law, based on a logic of mutual benefit and shared success, and fundamentally grounded in peace," said the minister.

"Today, as we revisit the Tokyo Trials, it is meant to remind the world that such a tragedy must never be repeated -- and that we must do everything in our power to prevent it from happening again. We must stop that dark world -- born from militarism, interventionism, and fascism -- from ever returning," he said.

Nicaraguan FM warns of militarism revival