THE CCP RECENTLY UNVEILED THE NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE NEAR FUTURE. HERE ARE THE IMPORTANT BITS.
Policy unveilings are always a grand affair in China. For a change, the political mandarins lay out the blueprint of governance for its citizens and the world to analyze. To this day, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has followed Soviet-style five-year plans (which were notably ditched by India in 2015). So let's dig in & analyze it, shall we?
SOME IMPORTANT NUGGETS FROM THE PLAN
It seems like the conservative core of the party won out this time. There was a conspicuous absence of absurdly high and lofty GDP projections. This indicates that the Chinese economy may not produce eye-popping growth again, at least for a while. Xi has instead laid stress on "quality growth" which can improve the standard of living for the whole country.
Most of the people have a false image of a completely modern & urbanised China. This is an utter fallacy. Severe economic imbalances are present among coastal Southeast China- Southern China & the dominantly rustic Northern China. This is akin to Italy's north-south divide of the latter half of the 20th century. Except for basic infrastructure, the non-coastal areas are relatively backward, agrarian & semi-urban. The map below highlights the income disparity between both regions. After years of neglect, the 14th five year plan finally acknowledges the problem & the government will soon undertake a slew of measures like easing rural to urban migration in smaller cities, enhancing quality of higher education & creating higher-paying employment opportunities for the rural youth.
China will continue to bankroll its One Belt One Road Policy despite the economic downturn. The government has acknowledged a loss of Chinese power due to rising geopolitical tensions. In such a scenario, it will continue to prey on developing and underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and even Eastern Europe.
The nation is also waking up to its "demographic nightmare", as I like to call it. China will soon like Japan, have a large number of retired people (39% of the total population by 2050). To stop the rot of the world's fastest ageing population, China has targeting increasing fertility rate in the nation & improve healthcare for women & children. The chart below explains the inevitable demographic downturn.
Despite its proclamation of going green at the UN's 75th year General Meeting, the country has shied away from taking concrete steps. On the contrary, it has left the door open for increasing energy generation by coal. This does not bode well for the Earth's well being as China is a major contributor to greenhouse emissions.
Instead of crunching numbers, the main point of this article was to enlighten you that China is not as invincible as it looks. The Asian giant too has a host of problems to solve in order to transition from a contender to an actual superpower. All things considered, the plan lacked ambition & daring like its predecessors, Perhaps they are a sign of the times to come. There were many other points to ponder upon like the upcoming dam crisis, debt-fuelled growth, rising sino-phobia, the emergence of the quad and losing of the microchip race. But they demand a whole article. So maybe you'll read about them in a while. Maybe not.
Till then,
Adios!
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