LIN Shangli: Institutional Advantages, Strategic Layout, and Spatial-Temporal Arrangement of China's National Governance

Reform and development are the two wheels driving the progress of contemporary China. In the new era, they are specifically embodied in the comprehensive deepening of reform with the modernization of national governance as its overall goal, and in the continuous advancement of national development through successive five-year plans. China's national governance possesses both the general features of modern national governance and distinctive socialist attributes as well as Chinese characteristics. It has created what is known as "China's governance," contributing a new form of national governance to human civilization. Against this backdrop, this paper focuses on the three five-year plans for the development of the new era deployed by the CPC Central Committee with President Xi Jinping at its core. It explores the institutional advantages, strategic layout, and spatial-temporal arrangement of China's national governance in the new era, and reveals the internal mechanisms underlying the Chinese governance created by China’s national governance.

Author: Lin Shangli, Professor at Renmin University of China

Source: Journal of Modernization Studies, 2026, No. 2

 

National governance, viewed in terms of its outcomes, represents the unity of order and development; viewed as a process, it entails the integration of order, reform, and development. The organic unity of reform, development, and stability is the key to China's development miracle and its distinctive model of governance. Stability rests on order, which requires the economy and society to maintain orderly functioning throughout the development process. In this sense, the sound formulation and effective implementation of five-year plans are intrinsic to China's approach to national governance and constitute an important means of translating its governing philosophy, strategies, and measures into practice.

Since the formulation of the First Five-Year Plan in 1953, five-year planning has been an integral part of China's development for more than seven decades. In the new era, China's pursuit of Chinese modernization has given five-year planning a new mission: to serve the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.

National Institutions and National Governance:

The Institutional Advantages Underpinning China's Governance

National institutions establish the arrangements governing the constituent elements of a state and the fundamental relationships among them. They provide the structural foundation of the state and determine its institutional form. National institutions form the basis of national governance, while national governance is the process through which those institutions operate. Effective national governance therefore depends first and foremost on sound national institutions. It cannot be achieved without institutions suited to a country's national conditions. For any state, selecting and establishing an advanced institutional system suited to its national conditions is already halfway toward achieving effective governance.

Behind contemporary China's development miracle lies its distinctive model of governance. In pursuing high-level national governance, China has drawn fully on its institutional strengths. However, institutional strengths do not automatically translate into effective governance. Only by grounding its efforts in national development and governance, comprehensively understanding and harnessing its institutional strengths, and systematically reinforcing them can China effectively translate those strengths into governance effectiveness. The three five-year plans of the new era demonstrate that China's distinctive model of governance has emerged through reform and development in which the Party and the people have deepened their understanding of China's institutional strengths, brought those strengths fully into play, and systematically enhanced them.

First, strengthening the role of China's institutions in national governance. In the new era, the overarching goal of comprehensively deepening reform was established as improving and developing the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and modernizing the national governance system and governance capacity. This gave institutional improvement and reform across all fields a broader mission: they must not only liberate and develop the productive forces and unleash and enhance social vitality, but also advance the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity. This has given rise to a new pattern of reform and development in which institutional improvement and development foster high-level governance, while high-level governance promotes high-quality development.

Second, strengthening institutional confidence among the entire Party and the Chinese people. In the new era, the Communist Party of China has continued both to improve and develop the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and to strengthen institutional confidence throughout the Party and among the people. This has been pursued in three ways. In terms of values, China has drawn on a people-centered philosophy of development and its practical application to demonstrate the strengths of its institutions. In theoretical terms, it has explained how China's institutions are rooted in the country's society, history, and development, enabling the people to understand that these institutions are both the product of historical choice and the creation of the people themselves. In practice, the achievements embodied in China's development miracle and its distinctive model of governance have made the new form of political civilization created by China's institutions a distinctive feature of the contemporary world.

Third, fully exercising Party leadership, the greatest strength of the socialist system. In the new era, an institutional framework for the Party's leadership over all aspects of work has been established. This framework comprises five main elements: improving the institutions that safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized, unified leadership; strengthening the institutions for the Party's overall leadership; improving the institutions through which the Party governs for the people and relies on the people in governance; strengthening the institutions for enhancing the Party's governing capacity and leadership; and improving the institutions for exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance. The establishment of this institutional framework has fundamentally advanced the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity.

Fourth, fully highlighting the people-centered nature of the socialist system. Since entering the new era, the Communist Party of China has adhered to a people-centered philosophy of development and sought to highlight the people-centered nature of the socialist system in three principal ways: developing whole-process people's democracy, making solid progress toward common prosperity for all, and improving the system of social consultation and collaborative governance.

China's development success rests on leveraging its institutional strengths to achieve high-level governance. The three five-year plans of the new era not only emphasize making full use of the political strengths derived from Party leadership and the institutional strengths of the socialist system, but also stress the creation of new institutional and developmental strengths through comprehensive reform, high-quality development, and high-level governance.

Comprehensive Planning and National Governance:

The Strategic Layout of China's Governance

National governance and national development are two interrelated aspects of the functioning of the state. Governance safeguards development, while development strengthens governance; the two are interdependent, mutually determinative, and mutually adaptive. Accordingly, the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan places particular emphasis on advancing Chinese modernization by "promoting greater alignment among relations of production and productive forces, the superstructure and the economic base, and national governance and social development, thereby continuously strengthening the drivers of development and social vitality."

Marxism holds that socialism's transcendence of capitalism depends above all on three principles: the people hold state power, society owns the means of production, and the state plays a role in planning and coordinating development as a whole. The practical expression of these three principles in national development and governance lies in the planned and coordinated advancement of economic and social development. The Communist Party of China has consistently relied on five-year plans to guide and organize national economic and social development, refining and strengthening this approach through practice. In March 2026, the National People's Congress adopted the Law on National Development Planning of the People's Republic of China, further strengthening the role of national planning in national governance.

From the First Five-Year Plan to the current 15th Five-Year Plan, China's economy and society have undergone profound transformations. Although the current plan differs greatly in substance from the First Five-Year Plan, the two share a striking similarity in the fundamental strategic principle guiding their assessment of national conditions and their approach to development: pursuing progress while maintaining stability. In its practice of governance, the Communist Party of China has consistently treated stability as a prerequisite for effective governance and progress as its driving force, bringing national governance and national development together through five-year planning.

An examination of the proposals for the three five-year plans of the new era reveals a broadly consistent structure in the recommendations issued by the CPC Central Committee. These proposals generally comprise six parts. First, they review the achievements of the preceding five years. Second, they define the historical context and strategic position of development over the coming five years. Third, they analyze the development environment over the next five years, including the opportunities and challenges it presents. Fourth, they set out the guiding philosophy, principles, and principal objectives for economic and social development over the coming five years. Fifth, from the perspective of the country's overall and long-term development, they outline strategic tasks and major measures across different fields. The 15th Five-Year Plan, for example, identifies key areas including industrial development, scientific and technological innovation, the domestic market, the economic system, opening up to the outside world, rural revitalization, regional development, cultural development, public services and social welfare, green development, security, and national defense. It sets out development priorities and specifies key tasks in each of these areas. Sixth, they call on the entire Party and the Chinese people to work toward realizing the new five-year plan. These features demonstrate that, although five-year plans for economic and social development focus primarily on economic and social progress and seek to address development challenges, they are grounded in the overall strategic interests of national development and take a long-term view. They also set out major tasks and development projects that bear on the prosperity of the country, the well-being of the people, and the strength of the nation. National governance in China is therefore embedded in national development, with high-quality development serving as a means of achieving high-level governance. Taken together, the proposals for the three five-year plans of the new era reveal eight major dimensions of the strategic framework underpinning national governance.

First, expanding development to meet the needs of the people. The practice of national development and governance must pay close attention to public sentiment and the views of the people while fully respecting their role in practical innovation and social development. It must address the pressing difficulties and concerns of the people while stimulating their initiative and creativity. The ultimate aim is to achieve national development that gives people a stronger sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.

Second, ensuring that the country retains the initiative in its development. In formulating and implementing national development plans in the new era, China has sought to achieve three objectives: taking a proactive approach to history when planning for the long term; maintaining a strategic initiative in responding to risks and challenges; and gaining an advantage in development by adapting proactively to changing circumstances and embracing change.

Third, firmly strengthening the foundations essential to national prosperity and public well-being. This involves two principal areas. The first comprises the core drivers of national prosperity and development: science and technology, education, and talent. The second consists of the essential foundations for people's livelihoods and economic activity: food and energy. Strong core drivers give the country a substantive strategic and historical initiative. Secure and robust foundations ensure that people's livelihoods and productive activities can be sustained and that the state functions smoothly, thereby helping to prevent crises that could affect the country as a whole.

Fourth, continuously sustaining the drivers of development and social vitality. Governance represents the unity of order and development, and its foundation lies in maintaining the momentum of development and the vitality of society. To advance national development to a higher level with each new five-year plan, China must strengthen the drivers of development and stimulate social vitality through deeper reform, clearly defined objectives, guidance of expectations, policy support, and the implementation of major projects.

Fifth, ensuring that a capable government supports an effective market and effective governance. Within China's economic system and structure of national governance, whether the market can play a decisive role in resource allocation depends crucially on whether the government recognizes, respects, and actively promotes the development of market mechanisms. Accordingly, all three five-year plans incorporate measures to transform government functions, improve government effectiveness, build a law-based government, ensure administration in accordance with the law, strengthen policymaking capacity, and improve macroeconomic governance. These measures are implemented through reforms and development initiatives in key fields.

Sixth, strengthening the foundations of social functioning and public services through major projects. Modern national governance and the effective functioning of society depend on the development of public services and social security systems. The strength of these systems directly affects the foundations and capacity of national governance. The three five-year plans provide for 165, 102, and 109 major projects, respectively, approximately two-thirds of which concern territorial security, infrastructure, public services, and people's livelihoods.

Seventh, creating a favorable external environment for governance through autonomous opening up. In the new era, while steadily expanding institutional opening up, China has also actively pursued opening up on its own initiative to promote and facilitate domestic and international economic circulation. The greater the country's strategic initiative within the global landscape, the stronger its capacity to respond to external challenges and global risks, and the more secure its national development and governance.

Eighth, integrating security into every field and every stage of governance. The country's security capacity and level of security directly affect the quality of national development and the standard of national governance. All three five-year plans of the new era incorporate the principle and strategy of coordinating development and security across all fields and aspects.

Five-year plans establish the overarching framework for national development, and this framework, in turn, shapes the strategic framework for national governance. The distinctive character of China's governance lies in its comprehensive strategic framework for national governance, which evolves in step with changing circumstances.

Long-Term Stability and National Governance:

The Spatial-Temporal Arrangement of China's Governance

The strategic objectives of the Communist Party of China in governing the country are to sustain the Party's long-term governance, ensure lasting national stability, and secure the enduring prosperity of the Chinese nation. The most fundamental and effective way to achieve these objectives is to maintain long-term national development and promote comprehensive national progress. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized that advancing the cause of the Party and the country requires both a focus on immediate realities and a long-term perspective, attention to individual areas of work and consideration of the overall picture, and a grounding in domestic conditions alongside a global outlook. China's national governance, which is grounded in national development, therefore embodies a distinctive spatial-temporal arrangement. This arrangement has two dimensions. The first arises from the temporal and spatial arrangements of national development itself. The second takes shape through the implementation of the national development agenda and the promotion of coordinated development across regions throughout the country.

First, the spatial-temporal arrangement of national governance arising from the temporal and spatial arrangements of national development. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and particularly since the launch of reform and opening up, national development has proceeded through clearly defined objectives, systematic planning, and tangible results. This has produced a pattern characterized by cumulative development, periodic leaps forward, and successive layers of progress. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for embarking on a new journey toward building a modern socialist country in all respects after completing the task of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The goal was to build China into a great modern socialist country by the middle of this century, the centenary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. To achieve this objective, development from 2020 to 2050 was divided into two stages. The first stage, from 2020 to 2035, is intended to achieve basic socialist modernization. The second stage, from 2035 to 2050, is intended to build China into a great modern socialist country. Each stage is to be implemented through three successive five-year plans.

Moreover, it is important to recognize that China has attached importance to the spatial balance of national development since the First Five-Year Plan. All three five-year plans of the new era identify optimizing the territorial spatial pattern and promoting coordinated regional development as major priorities. Spatial planning for national development encompasses multiple dimensions. Vertically, it concerns relations between the central and local governments; horizontally, it concerns relations between urban and rural areas and among the eastern, central, and western regions, among others. The objective is to mobilize the initiative of all parties, promote coordinated development, and achieve shared progress.

Second, the spatial-temporal arrangement of national governance arising from the implementation of the national development agenda and the promotion of coordinated regional development throughout the country. The national development agenda essentially consists of the arrangements and measures through which medium- and long-term national development plans are advanced and implemented. The establishment and implementation of every major strategic agenda inevitably create new requirements for national governance. Looking at practice since the launch of reform and opening up, the relevant action plans and strategic measures can broadly be divided into three categories. The first category comprises plans and measures developed in response to the long-term strategic requirements of national development. An example from the new era is the strategic framework for governing the Party, the country, and the military, which combines upholding the Party's overall leadership with exercising full and rigorous Party self-governance. The second category comprises action plans and policy measures designed to ensure that economic and social development objectives are achieved within each five-year cycle. These include long-term arrangements for government development and institutional reforms of Party and state organs conducted every five years. The third category comprises periodic and intensive education initiatives carried out throughout the Party to continuously advance its political, ideological, organizational, and working-style development, as well as discipline building. In implementation, these three categories of plans and measures frequently overlap and reinforce one another, producing a combined effect that enhances the country's overall capacity for national governance.

Another important dimension of national governance is the planning and governance of territorial space within the country's borders. The three five-year plans of the new era promote coordinated regional development across the country through three spatial dimensions: urban-rural development, regional development, and territorial spatial planning.

The spatial-temporal arrangement of national governance seeks to establish an optimal spatial pattern for national development, ensure the harmonious coexistence of people with nature, society, and one another, and safeguard the country's sustainable development and long-term stability.

Conclusion

From the First Five-Year Plan in 1953 to the 15th Five-Year Plan in 2026, China has advanced step by step, developed its own path of national development, and established a distinctive form of national governance. First, the Communist Party of China, which has no special interests of its own, leads national governance and exercises state power to ensure that national development remains centered on the people. Second, the people are both the masters of society and the masters of the state. As the principal actors in national governance, they exercise their role as masters of the country and participate in governance through whole-process people's democracy. Third, the state and society are not separate entities but are integrated and mutually supportive. The state does not suppress society, nor does society oppose the state. Instead, the state safeguards and serves social development and progress, while society supports and works with the state to ensure its effective functioning. Fourth, national governance is embedded in national development. High-level governance is achieved by promoting greater alignment among relations of production and productive forces, the superstructure and the economic base, and national governance and social development. Fifth, China advances law-based governance in all respects, comprehensively promoting the rule of law across all areas of the country's work to safeguard and promote social equity and justice. Sixth, China combines an effective market with a capable government, allowing the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation while ensuring that the government performs its functions more effectively. Seventh, national governance is committed to promoting the all-round development of the individual and achieving common prosperity for all. It seeks both to ensure that the fruits of development are shared by the entire population and to address the pressing difficulties and concerns of the people. Eighth, national governance coordinates development and security, working to ensure that people live and work in peace and contentment, that the Party sustains its long-term governance, and that the country enjoys lasting stability. Ninth, social governance follows a system based on collaboration, participation and common interests. It maintains social harmony and stability through a system that combines self-governance, the rule of law, and governance based on virtue. Tenth, China integrates the national governance system with its governance capacity, bringing its institutional, political, organizational, human-resource, and technological strengths together in the practice of governance and continuously advancing the modernization of national governance.

 

Original Link: [Social Sciences Digest] Institutional Strengths, Strategic Framework, and Spatial-Temporal Arrangement of China's National Governance: An Examination of the Three Five-Year Plans in the New Era