Table Of ContentUnderstanding China
Jun Yin
Jia Xu
China’s Plan
for Economic
and Social
Development
A Review from the 1st to 14th Five-Year
Plan
Understanding China
The series will provide you with in-depth information on China’s social, cultural and
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materials for researchers, doctoral students, and experienced practitioners.
·
Jun Yin Jia Xu
China’s Plan for Economic
and Social Development
A Review from the 1st to 14th Five-Year Plan
Jun Yin Jia Xu
Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Institute of Party History and Literature
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for of the CPC Central Committee
a New Era, Peking University Beijing, China
Beijing, China
ISSN 2196-3134 ISSN 2196-3142 (electronic)
Understanding China
ISBN 978-981-19-5903-5 ISBN 978-981-19-5904-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5904-2
Jointly published with Peking University Press
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Acknowledgements
The translation was completed by Chen Yaping from Tongji University, and has
benefited from careful revision by Chen Lin, Matthew Spooner, and Wang Lihuan,
from the translating assistance of Chen Songyu, Li Jing, Wang Linyi, and Yu Shiwen
at Tongji University, from the expertise of the author Yin Jun, from the initiative for
the translation by the Peking University Press in China, and from the editing services
of Springer. It is also supported by Tongji University’s Center for Translating China
for Global Communication.
v
Contents
1 Introduction ................................................... 1
1.1 State Governance and Planning System ........................ 2
1.1.1 National Development from a State Governance
Perspective .......................................... 2
1.1.2 Typical State Governance Behind China’s Economic
Miracle ............................................. 4
1.1.3 The Five-Year Planning System with Chinese
Characteristics ....................................... 8
1.1.4 A Brief History of the Rise and Fall of Planning
Worldwide .......................................... 18
1.2 The Logic of Governance by Planning ......................... 24
1.2.1 Three Basic Theoretical Questions ...................... 24
1.2.2 What is Planning? .................................... 25
1.2.3 Why Is Planning Needed? ............................. 31
1.2.4 How to Plan? ........................................ 36
1.3 Developing a Planning Theory with Chinese Characteristics ...... 39
1.3.1 A Methodology for Building a Planning Theory
with Chinese Characteristics ........................... 39
1.3.2 Taking Axioms of Marxism as the Body, and Making
Good Use of Western Learning Systems ................. 42
1.3.3 Learning from Historical Experience and Lessons ........ 43
References ..................................................... 45
2 Five-Year Plans in Exploration .................................. 49
2.1 The CPC’s Planning and Preparation for National
Development Before 1953 ................................... 49
2.1.1 The Grand Blueprint of the PRC Relied on Planning ...... 50
2.1.2 Preparation for a Planned Economy: Formation
of the State-Owned Economy, Adjustment
of the Industry and Commerce, and Establishment
of Planning Management Mechanism ................... 53
vii
viii Contents
2.1.3 The Drafting of National Economic Plans: Advancing
in the Course of Exploration ........................... 59
2.1.4 The Initial Practice of the Planned Economy
in Northeast China ................................... 61
2.2 The First Five-Year Plan: An Important Beginning of China’s
Transformation from an Agricultural Country to an Industrial
Country ................................................... 63
2.2.1 Mao Tse-Tung Pointed Out That the Strategy
of Giving Priority to the Development of Heavy
Industry Was the “Policy of Great Benevolence” .......... 64
2.2.2 The Visit to the Soviet Union and the Signing
of Agreements ....................................... 65
2.2.3 The Establishment of the Working Procedure
of “Down Twice and Up Once” in the National
Planning System ..................................... 68
2.2.4 “A Five-Year Plan, Being Planned Over Five Years” ....... 72
2.2.5 Unprecedented Investment in Chinese History ............ 75
2.2.6 “The Spring in the History of China Planning” ........... 76
2.3 The Second Five-Year Plan Through Ups and Downs ............ 78
2.3.1 “With All Unfolding at Full Tilt” ....................... 79
2.3.2 Zhou Enlai Said with Concern, “The Preparation
of Plans Must Be Based on the Reality” ................. 80
2.3.3 Recommendations for the Second Five-Year Plan
Submitted to the Eighth CPC National Congress .......... 82
2.3.4 With the Sudden Change of Situation, the National
Economic Construction Was Out of the Sound
Development Track .................................. 84
2.4 Adjustments and Eight-Character Policy After the Second
Five-Year Plan ............................................. 87
2.4.1 “Don’t Be Ashamed of Mentioning the Mistakes
We Have Made: Only by Reviewing and Learning
from Them Can We Provide Timely Guidance” ........... 87
2.4.2 “Work According to the Plan, Not in Favor
of Subjective Desires and Ambitions” ................... 88
2.4.3 “Now It Is Time to Resolve to Correct Mistakes” ......... 89
2.4.4 “Now a Period to Reinvigorate Both Agriculture
and Industry Is Needed” .............................. 92
2.5 The Third Five-Year Plan: From Focusing on Basic
Necessities to Preparing for War .............................. 95
2.5.1 “The Plan of Food, Clothing and Life Necessities” ........ 96
2.5.2 The Starting Point for Mao Tse-Tung’s Consideration
of the Third Five-Year Plan Was to Prepare for War ....... 97
2.5.3 “I Will Be Too Uneasy to Sleep if the Iron and Steel
Industrial Base in Panzhihua Is Not Set Up” ............. 98
Contents ix
2.5.4 To Further Study the Third Five-Year Plan
and the Third-Line Construction by Mao Tse-Tung’s
Requirements ....................................... 100
2.5.5 The Comprehensive Implementation of the Third-Line
Construction and the Formulation of the Third
Five-Year Plan ....................................... 101
2.5.6 Strive to Complete the Third Five-Year Plan ............. 103
2.6 The Fourth Five-Year Plan: Exceeding in Three Respects
and Adjusting Twice ........................................ 105
2.6.1 The Blind Pursuit of High Speed and High Targets
Led to the “Excess in Three Respects” .................. 105
2.6.2 “Why Are We Unable to Do What We Could Do
in the Past? I’m Very Upset About It” ................... 107
2.6.3 “In Socialist Construction, Both Production
and Technology Work Must Be Done Well” .............. 110
2.6.4 The Fourth Five-Year Plan Was Fulfilled After Twists
and Turns ........................................... 114
2.7 The Fifth Five-Year Plan at a Great Historical Turning Point ...... 115
2.7.1 The Economy Was Hit Hard in 1976 .................... 116
2.7.2 Smashing the Gang of Four and Formulating a New
Leap Forward Plan ................................... 118
2.7.3 The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC
Central Committee: A Turning Point in History ........... 122
2.7.4 Putting Forward the Eight-Character Policy
of Adjusting, Restructuring, Consolidating,
and Improving ....................................... 123
References ..................................................... 127
3 Five-Year Plans During Reform and Opening-Up ................. 133
3.1 The Sixth Five-Year Plan: Another Period of Rapid National
Economic Growth .......................................... 133
3.1.1 Deng Xiaoping Stressed, “Attention Should Be Paid
to Adjustments. Reform Should Be Subordinate
to and Conducive to Adjustments Instead of Hindering
Them” .............................................. 134
3.1.2 The “Long-Awaited” Five-Year Plan—The Sixth
Five-Year Plan Announced to the Whole Society ......... 135
3.1.3 A Significant Transformation in the Planned
Economy: The Twelfth National Congress of the CPC
Proposed the Idea of a “Planned Economy
as the Mainstay Supplemented by Market Regulation” ..... 138
3.1.4 Significant Achievements During the Sixth Five-Year
Plan ................................................ 139
3.2 The Seventh Five-Year Plan: Reform, Ups and Downs,
and Development ........................................... 141
x Contents
3.2.1 Theoretical Breakthroughs After Adopting a “Planned
Commodity Economy” ............................... 142
3.2.2 Where Is the Limit of “Capacity”: The Seventh
Five-Year Plan Formulated in Debate ................... 143
3.2.3 The Start of the Seventh Five-Year Plan
Was Overheated with Chen Yun Reminding
of the Importance of “Staying Clear-Headed” ............ 146
3.2.4 Rectification Proved to Be Effective, and the Seventh
Five-Year Plan Was Successfully Fulfilled ............... 148
3.3 The Eighth Five-Year Plan: High-Speed Growth with “Soft
Landing” .................................................. 151
3.3.1 Conducting Rectification and Improvement While
Developing the Economy in a Sustainable, Stable,
and Balanced Manner ................................. 151
3.3.2 “Once We Are Sure That Something Should Be Done,
We Should Dare to Experiment and Break a New Path” .... 154
3.3.3 The Central Government Adjusted the Eighth
Five-Year Plan After the Southern Talks ................. 157
3.3.4 Macro Regulation and a Soft Landing for Economic
Growth ............................................. 159
3.3.5 The Eighth Five-Year Plan: One of the Best
Implemented Five-Year Plans Since the Founding
of the PRC .......................................... 162
3.4 Completion of the Ninth Five-Year Plan: A New Milestone
in the History of China’s Development ........................ 163
3.4.1 The New Domestic and International Environments
Fueled New Features for the Ninth Five-Year Plan ........ 164
3.4.2 The First Five-Year Plan Formulated Under
the Conditions of a Socialist Market Economy ........... 165
3.4.3 Timely Adjust the Ninth Five-Year Plan in Response
to the Asian Financial Crisis ........................... 166
3.4.4 “The Economic Situation This Year Is the Best Ever
Since” .............................................. 168
3.5 The Tenth Five-Year Plan: China as an Important
Underpinning and Engine of Global Economic Development ..... 170
3.5.1 Take the Strategic Adjustment of Economic Structure
as the Mainline ...................................... 171
3.5.2 The Formulation of the Tenth Five-Year Plan:
Universal Discussion and Wide Participation ............. 173
3.5.3 The Targets of the Plan Should Give Leeway Due
to International and Domestic Uncertainties .............. 175
3.5.4 China Became an Important Underpinning and Engine
of Global Economic Development ...................... 177
References ..................................................... 179
