Kathmandu. The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) convened this week for the purpose of devising a guideline to determine the future course of the nation. It released a communique that detailed the 14th five-year plan on Thursday and identified the key sectors in working towards the long-term goal of strategic development.

The plenum, attended by 198 of Beijing’s top officials, advanced the objective of developing a blueprint termed as the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035. It approved Xi Jinping’s “Vision 2035”, that various political analysts and academics have labeled as a grand strategy for Xi to remain as a “president-for-life.”

The five-year plan focuses on the modernization of the Chinese military, building an ecological community, prioritizing the agricultural sector for the purpose of developing the rural sector, strengthening the social security and health systems, maintaining the development pattern of “dual-circulation,” promoting the socialist values, improving national administrative systems, pushing towards the stability for Hong Kong and Macau, and working towards national reunification, with regards to Taiwan.

The emphasis was on improving the security system of the state and sustaining the economic growth and development that China has achieved until this point in time. Wang Hongwei, a Professor at Renmin University of China’s School of Public Administration and Policy, conveyed that, “China has seen increasing external challenges at a critical stage of its rapid development. So building China with a focus on safeguarding security is now an important and urgent issue.”

Guo Xiaobing, the Director of the Arms Control Studies Center of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, also commented that China was “facing increasing external uncertainties.” Pressing on the rising tensions between the United States of America and China, he asserted that, “escalating China-US tensions are a serious challenge to our security, as the US continues to provoke us economically, technologically and militarily.”

The long-term vision that spans forward 15 years is geared towards achieving socialist modernization by 2035. It introduces the notion of a Beautiful China with the aim to build an eco-friendly society, that reflects Xi’s recent commitment to reach carbon neutrality before 2060. Beyond that, the vision also determines that China’s per capita GDP will come to the levels of other moderately developed states, and that the state’s technological innovations will have made significant headway with the designated timeframe. Furthermore, the communique has also highlighted the growth of China’s soft power, implementation of a Secure China, and opening-up for international competition and cooperation.

Yang Xuedong, a Professor of Political Science at Tsinghua University claimed that the country was aware of the contemporary issues that surround it, and that this was apparent in the comprehensive structure of the document’s take on the challenges.

Yang further contemplated that, “As the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic, with no end in sight in the next few years, coping with the increasingly complex and vicious international environment where some countries have been dedicated to containing China’s rise, it is of great importance to cultivate such awareness to embrace instability and uncertainties and grasp new opportunities.”

China is currently engaged in a border stand-off against India at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and its bilateral relations with the US  have significantly cooled since the latter’s increased involvement in Taiwan. The dragon is clearly trying to tackle these challenges while holding on the progress it has achieved thus far within its own territory and throughout the region.