To meet the challenges of the 21st century, France and China must place cooperation in governance at the heart of their partnership.
The French meat products stand at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE), in Shanghai, November 8, 2025
During a program on BFM Business on November 8, 2025 devoted to the preparation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the two French speakers agreed to affirm that for French companies in China, this five-year plan is the “compass” which guides their anticipations and their future investments.
These are the main orientations of this plan which make it possible to discern new opportunities for Franco-Chinese economic relations. This plan, the result of a democratic and participatory process, does not simply chart the path of Chinese development for the next five years; it represents the culmination of a unique system of governance whose effectiveness has enabled the spectacular transformation of China.
Franco-Chinese cooperation could cross new frontiers, from technology to governance, going beyond the search for windfall effects. It is about adopting a look at “the method of the method”, as the philosopher Edgar Morin wrote. Why not reassess the benefits of the five-year plan which is proving successful in China? Especially since France has already practiced it successfully during the prosperous period of the “Trente Glorieuses”, following the Second World War.
The context and spirit of the 15th Five-Year Plan
The abundant documents produced on the occasion of the 4th plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) deserve a synthesis to extract the spirit and objectives, but also to analyze the method by which China designs and implements its governance.
During the explanatory introduction to the preparation of the 15th Plan, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Xi Jinping recalled the expected role of this tool.
“We must systematically plan and strategically organize the economic and social development of our country during this period, in accordance with the overall strategic arrangements with a view to accomplishing in two stages the transformation of China into a great modern socialist country in all fields, the goal announced at the 20th Party Congress. »
In summary, the 15th Plan is part of the process of continuous progress aimed at China’s socialist modernization, the bulk of which must be achieved by 2035.
General Secretary Xi Jinping detailed how the 15th Plan should promote the quality development of China’s economy through scientific innovation, education, the pursuit of technological independence and new energy, digital and ecological systems.
He insisted on strengthening the domestic economic circuit to compensate for the external situation. Opening up to the world is not neglected, however, with the safeguarding of multilateral trade and “high-quality cooperation” within the framework of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
General Secretary Xi Jinping addressed the social aspect of the 15th Plan with a commitment to thinking from the people’s perspective to ensure social well-being.
He cited the social objectives to be achieved: full employment, income distribution, education system meeting the expectations of the population, reinforced social protection, real estate sector, a “healthy” China, demographic development and standardization of basic public services.
The explanatory report allows us to appreciate the succession of stages of the process of preparing the 15th Plan, both democratic and participatory: investigations in twelve provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities by six teams on 35 questions of major importance; discussions between economists, scientists, representatives of the grassroots levels and members of the Party leadership; online consultations obtaining three million comments leading to 1,500 proposals.
Since the First Five-Year Plan in 1953, this tool has systematically enabled China to transform its economy and society. The five-year plans were the silent architects of the Chinese miracle, making possible the accelerated modernization of infrastructure, the emergence of industrial champions, and the spectacular rise in the population’s standard of living.
New growth is expected from emerging and future industries. The drivers of this new growth are innovation, research, infrastructure and industrial clusters – areas where long-term planning has shown its superiority. The Chinese planning system combines strategic vision and operational flexibility, making it possible to both maintain focus on fundamental objectives and adapt to new global realities.
French tourists draw the view of an old street in front of the Yuewang Tower in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, October 26, 2025.
China-France: from technology to governance
Under the 15th Five-Year Plan, China and France can seek to deepen cooperation opportunities in areas identified as priorities, namely: quantum computing, biomanufacturing, hydrogen, fusion, brain-computer interface, artificial intelligence and 6G.
I would now like to address a second aspect, political this time, of possible Franco-Chinese cooperation: that of governance, from which France could greatly benefit today.
For decades, China has built its prosperity thanks to the policy of opening and reform begun in the 1980s, which earned it the qualification of “workshop of the world”. Today, China has far surpassed this label. It has become, in my eyes, the “laboratory of ideas for the world”, thanks to the example of its governance.
It is more than just a laboratory: in 45 years, China has successfully completed the stages of research, development and efficient production in the governance of its economy and its socialist modernization. This approach could well inspire French policy.
In 1985, I wrote my dissertation at the Center for the Study of Economic Programs of the Ministry of Finance on the theme of the French Five-Year Plan. At that time, France was in its 9th Plan, the origins of which went back to the Council of the Resistance at the end of the Second World War in 1945. France had experienced remarkable development during the “Trente Glorieuses” while its economy was still driven by the Plan and before it was integrated into the Europe of Brussels.
The French system of indicative planning, brilliantly theorized and implemented by Jean Monnet, allowed the accelerated reconstruction of the country and its entry into industrial modernity. The Planning Commission’s method, based on consultation between the State, social partners and experts, had proven itself. However, unlike China which has never renounced this strategic tool, France has gradually dismantled it under the double influence of European integration and neoliberal ideology.
China has demonstrated that it is possible to achieve planned and effective growth, through a process combining consultation and democracy, under the leadership of a strong State serving the People with the objective of building a “beautiful China”.
Faced with contemporary challenges, France would benefit from drawing inspiration from this experience to: reestablish a long-term strategic vision beyond electoral cycles, develop a method of systematic consultation integrating all stakeholders, maintain political coherence over time, combine indicative planning and market mechanisms and direct innovation towards structuring challenges (ecological transition, technological sovereignty).
The main obstacle is not technical, but cultural and political: our current system, fragmented and short-term, resists this approach. However, faced with the challenges of climate change, digital transition and new geoeconomic rivalries, strategic planning is once again becoming a necessity.
Towards a new governance cooperation
Beyond technical, economic and commercial cooperation, governance should be the first axis of Franco-Chinese partnership. Such an approach would lay the foundations for a world where politics would truly serve the people and peace.
France and China, each with their history and their specificities, could co-build a new model of governance adapted to the 21st century – a model which would combine the effectiveness of strategic planning, the vitality of participatory democracy, and environmental responsibility. Dialogue between our two civilizations could thus give rise to a new approach to economic and social development, beneficial to all of humanity.
Contemporary challenges – climate change, health crises, technological transition – require more than ever this ability to think and act in the long term. This is a quality that China has been able to preserve and that France would be wrong to forget. The renewal of planning, enriched by our respective experiences, could be one of the major intellectual and political projects of the decades to come.
The reintroduction of five-year planning in France, even in a modernized and indicative form, would require profound adaptations at the constitutional, institutional and cultural levels.
Politically, the effectiveness of a five-year plan relies on stability. It must be designed to overcome the political cycle and the frequent parliamentary vagaries. To guarantee this sustainability, the plan must have a legal force greater than that of a simple programming law, so that it cannot easily be called into question.
*JEAN PÉGOURET is a French sinologist and geopolitologist, president of Saphir Eurasia Promotion.
