China's Communist Party Gathers to Chart Five-Year Plan Amidst Authoritarian Consolidation

The Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee is convening a secretive plenum from October 20 to 23, 2025, to deliberate on the 15th five-year development plan for 2026-2030. This session, the fourth since the 2022 Party Congress, was hastily scheduled after a nine-month delay, reflecting the party's opaque and unaccountable decision-making process.

Five-year plans have long been used as tools for top-down control, shaping China's economic and social policies with little input from ordinary citizens. While the plan is expected to highlight technological self-sufficiency, especially in semiconductors and green energy, this push is framed as a response to trade tensions with the United States, rather than a genuine commitment to equitable innovation. The focus on technological advancement often serves to bolster state surveillance and corporate monopolies, rather than uplifting workers or marginalized communities.

The plenum is also expected to address governance issues and orchestrate personnel changes within the party and military leadership, further consolidating power among elite circles. The recent expulsion of two top military leaders, General He Weidong and Admiral Miao Hua, under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign, exemplifies the party's use of purges to eliminate rivals and maintain its authoritarian grip.

Although detailed policy targets will not be released until March 2026, the outcomes of this closed-door meeting are expected to reinforce China's state-driven economic model, prioritizing domestic consumption and supply chain resilience for the benefit of the ruling class. Environmental goals, such as achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, are likely to be reaffirmed, but past experience shows that such pledges often mask ongoing environmental degradation and social inequality.