Faced with the impasse into which the West is finding itself, China is charting an ambitious and resolutely forward-looking path to modernization.
High-speed train models are on display at the 17th International Modern Railway Technology and Equipment Exhibition at the National Convention Center in Beijing, July 9, 2025.
China and the West seem to be moving in opposite directions. The West, mired in economic stagnation and political dysfunction, seeks to impose its hegemony through military adventurism and all kinds of unilateral coercive measures; China, on the other hand, is resolutely pursuing ambitious and inspiring modernization.
The 15th Five-Year Plan
The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) charts a comprehensive roadmap for realizing modernization with Chinese characteristics, emphasizing innovation, sustainability, strategic autonomy and people-centered development.
Key elements of the plan include strengthening national capabilities in new energy, quantum computing, AI, electric transportation, nanotechnology, brain-machine interfaces, robotics, 6G networks, advanced industry and a series of cutting-edge technologies, while promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas, improvement of public services and ecological transition.
Facing an increasingly unpredictable global environment, where the United States is stepping up its strategy of encirclement and containment – resorting to tariff wars, sanctions, export controls, unilateralism, protectionism and so-called decoupling, as well as military aggression and high-risk confrontation strategy, China is doubling down on innovation-driven development and technological self-reliance.
Western governments are shifting R&D spending to the private sector, generating a chaotic, fragmented and profit-driven innovation ecosystem, while China’s 15th Five-Year Plan commits to increasing R&D spending by at least 7% per year.
That China has moved from extreme scientific and technological backwardness to becoming a global innovation leader in just a few decades is a testament to the power of its state-driven development and strategic planning.
Florists pack freshly cut phalaenopsis stems in Longyan, Fujian, November 22, 2025.
Long term vision
As the reader is no doubt aware, the Chinese planning system operates on several levels and on different time scales. Beyond the five-year medium-term framework, there is a longer-term vision for the country’s development. The next decisive step is to achieve essentially socialist modernization by 2035. The parameters of this vision include: achieving a GDP per capita comparable to that of moderately developed countries; the inclusion of China among the most innovative nations in the world in the fields of science and technology; its rise to the rank of world leader in education, public health, culture and sport; a substantial increase in the share of the middle-income population; guaranteeing equitable access to basic public services; ensuring modern living conditions in rural areas; as well as the gradual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the protection of biodiversity, in order to restore a healthy balance between human beings and their natural environment.
The 2035 goal itself constitutes a step on the path to achieving the second centenary goal, namely: “to build, by 2049, a modern, prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful socialist great power”.
In terms of laying a solid foundation for achieving these goals, the 15th Five-Year Plan obviously covers a period of crucial importance. In order to overcome development bottlenecks, resolve contradictions, sustainably improve people’s living conditions and further unleash the country’s potential, all in a context of increasing external pressures, this plan represents the synthesis of a very large number of proposals and ideas emanating from the entire Party, the government, academia, industry and civil society.
Peaceful development
The adoption of the 15th Five-Year Plan comes against a backdrop of growing global turbulence.
The United States and Israel have launched an openly illegal war of aggression against Iran, which threatens to escalate into a broader regional and potentially global conflict. The list of atrocities committed in the first days of this campaign includes the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, as well as the bombing of a girls’ primary school in Minab, which resulted in the deaths of at least 175 people.
This came just two months after U.S. forces invaded Caracas, Venezuela, killing more than a hundred people and kidnapping the country’s legitimately elected president, Nicolás Maduro.
Faced with declining productivity and profitability, deteriorating living conditions in their own countries, as well as the emergence of the Global South, some Western countries are responding with illegal militarism, seeking to disrupt the world’s multipolar trajectory.
Among the most attractive aspects of China’s modernization process are its peaceful nature, the fact that it is taking place entirely outside of any logic of colonialism, imperialism and war, as well as the fact that it is based on the creativity and hard work of the Chinese people and the strength of socialism with Chinese characteristics. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out in 1984, the superiority of the socialist system is manifested, in the final analysis, by a more rapid and greater development of the productive forces than under the capitalist system.
Green development
Another particularly attractive aspect of China’s modernization process is its commitment to ecological civilization and green development. While the Trump administration has, for the second time, withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and while the United States and Israel are bombing oil depots in Tehran, covering the Iranian capital with a cloud of toxic smoke, China is resolutely building a green economy and a model of sustainable development that are the envy of the entire world. It is already the undisputed world leader in the fields of renewable energies, electric vehicles, protection of biodiversity, reforestation, the fight against pollution, electrification and energy efficiency.
The 15th Five-Year Plan highlights the need to accelerate the ecological transition in all areas of economic and social development, and commits to making concerted efforts to achieve carbon neutrality, while expanding the country’s already gigantic energy system, reducing its dependence on fossil fuels, strengthening ecosystem restoration, and continuing the development of environmentally friendly production systems as well as the promotion of ecological lifestyles.
Human-centered development
Beyond the focus on innovation and sustainability, the 15th Five-Year Plan also constitutes a comprehensive roadmap for people-centered development, which integrates the well-being of the people with the long-term strategic interests of the nation.
The plan includes a wide range of policies and measures aimed at promoting full and quality employment, optimizing the income distribution system, developing education that meets the expectations of the population, reducing the development gap between urban and rural areas, improving the social security system, expanding social coverage, fostering high-quality development in the real estate sector, improving the public health system, as well as making constant efforts to ensure equitable access to public services.
China is leading the way. It demonstrates that it is possible to achieve quality economic development, technological innovation, social progress and environmental sustainability, in a peaceful and human-centered way. As some countries descend into a dangerous logic of aggression in response to economic stagnation and political dysfunction, the inspiring vision of Chinese modernization is more necessary than ever.
*CARLOS MARTINEZ is an independent activist, writer and political commentator based in London. He is also the author of The East Is Still Red: Chinese Socialism in the 21st Century (2023).
