Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" (2026 to 2030) period, China must place greater strategic priority on developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, led by scientific and technological innovation and grounded in the real economy, in order to accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system.
After the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee on October 23 passed the “Recommendations on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development,” official media Xinhua News Agency on October 28 released the full text of the “15th Five-Year Plan” recommendations, along with Xi Jinping’s explanation on the recommendations delivered at the plenary session.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” recommendations focus on advancing high-quality development. In his explanation, Xi Jinping emphasized, “The most important task is to accelerate high-level scientific and technological self-reliance, actively develop new quality productive forces, and achieve substantive and breakthrough progress in scientific and technological innovation, the nurturing of new growth engines, and the optimization and upgrading of the economic structure.”
The CPC’s central journal “Qiushi” published its latest issue on Sunday (November 16), featuring an article by Xi Jinping titled “Developing New Quality Productive Forces According to Local Conditions,” collecting excerpts of Xi Jinping’s remarks on new quality productive forces from September 2023 to April 2025.
The CPC’s central journal “Qiushi” published its latest issue on Sunday (November 16), featuring an article by Xi Jinping titled “Developing New Quality Productive Forces According to Local Conditions,” collecting excerpts of Xi Jinping’s remarks on new quality productive forces from September 2023 to April 2025.
At a collective study session of the CPC Political Bureau on January 31, 2024, Xi Jinping defined new quality productive forces as being dominated by innovation, breaking away from traditional economic growth models and paths of productive force development, characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and representing an advanced quality of productive forces that is in line with new development principles.
New quality productive forces are generated through revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Their basic elements are the advancement of laborers, means of labor, objects of labor and their optimal combination; their core indicator is a substantial increase in total factor productivity; their feature is innovation; their key is quality; and their essence is advanced productive forces.
During the “Two Sessions” (National People’s Congress and CPPCC National Committee) on March 5, Xi Jinping pointed out when attending the Jiangsu delegation’s deliberation that scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths to developing new quality productive forces. Technological innovation can foster new industries, new models, and new drivers of growth, making it the core element in developing new quality productive forces.
New quality productive forces are generated through revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Their basic elements are the advancement of laborers, means of labor, objects of labor and their optimal combination; their core indicator is a substantial increase in total factor productivity; their feature is innovation; their key is quality; and their essence is advanced productive forces.
During the “Two Sessions” (National People’s Congress and CPPCC National Committee) on March 5, Xi Jinping pointed out when attending the Jiangsu delegation’s deliberation that scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation are the basic paths to developing new quality productive forces. Technological innovation can foster new industries, new models, and new drivers of growth, making it the core element in developing new quality productive forces.
Xi Jinping believes that to drive technological innovation, efforts should focus on building a modern industrial system, not only producing more scientific and technological achievements but also transforming these achievements into tangible productive forces. To push industrial innovation, it is essential to secure the real economy as the foundation and promote both the upgrading of traditional industries and the development of new tracks in strategic emerging and future industries. To integrate technological and industrial innovation, platforms should be established, systems and mechanisms improved, and the principal position of enterprises in innovation reinforced, achieving seamless linkage between the innovation and industrial chains.
At a seminar for leading provincial and ministerial officials held on October 29 last year, Xi Jinping stressed the need to resolutely eliminate institutional and mechanism obstacles hindering high-quality development and to enhance production relations better adapted to new quality productive forces. He called for strengthening institutional support for new fields and tracks and promoting the gathering of all types of advanced productive factors toward the development of new quality productive forces.
Xi Jinping also called for improving the national innovation system and stimulating the vitality of all innovation actors, placing sustained effort on strengthening basic research and enhancing original innovation capacity, and working hard to break through key core and frontier technologies. He emphasized the need to resolve bottlenecks and obstacles impeding comprehensive innovation, to coordinate the integrated development of education, science, and talent, and to lay a solid foundational and strategic support for the development of new quality productive forces.
At a symposium on economic and social development during the 15th Five-Year Plan held with some provincial, regional, and municipal authorities on April 30 this year, Xi Jinping stressed that during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, China must place a greater strategic focus on developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions, led by science and technology innovation and based on the real economy, in order to accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system.
Xi Jinping also called on all regions of China to proceed from actual conditions, to develop new industries, new models, and new drivers where appropriate, based on their own resource endowment, industrial foundation, and research conditions. They should also accelerate the upgrading of traditional industries, which are the basic underpinning for economic growth and employment income, and promote the smooth transition between old and new drivers of development.