On July 1, 2021, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued 14th Five-year Plan for Circular Economy Development (hereinafter referred to as “the Plan”). It is the first state-level plan affiliated to China’s five-year plan regarding circular economy.

The Plan contains six chapters: i) developing foundation and current situation; ii) overall requirements; iii) major goals; iv) key projects and initiatives; v) policy support; vi) organizing authorities.

Under the plan, the circular economy — a model focusing on recycling, reusing and repairing raw materials and resources — will be a national priority during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

By 2025, a resource recycling industry system will be basically established and a resource recycling system covering the entire society will be basically completed. By then, resource utilization efficiency will be substantially improved, and the replacement ratio of renewable resources to primary resources will be further increased.

In particular, major resource productivity — which quantifies the relations between economic activity and the consumption of major material resources — is set to increase by about 20 percent compared with 2020. The energy consumption per unit GDP and water consumption per unit GDP will be reduced by 13.5 percent and 16 percent respectively. The comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw will remain above 86 percent, and the comprehensive utilization rate of both bulk solid waste and construction waster is set to reach 60 percent.

According to the plan, the use of wastepaper and scrap steel will reach 60 million tons and 320 million tons respectively, and the output of recycled non-ferrous metals will hit 20 million tons by 2025. By then, the resources recycling industry will be worth 5 trillion yuan.

Seeing in the vertical and horizontal timeline, the Plan has its unique significance in the whole green development even economic development system of China in following perspective:

·         Comparing to other documents on the same level with similar contents in China (for example, 14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development), the Plan is more practical since it covers a very specific area of the green development, therefore is able to deliver more concrete parameters as final goals.      

·         The Plan is the first national document with further strategies after the official notice issued by NDRC to call for public opinion on the revision of Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China on September 10, 2021 (current effective version came into force on October 26, 2018). The calling-for-comment action also was taken on provincial level at the end of 2021. Based on China’s regular legislation and regulation composing routines, the orientation or concepts of the law revision are very likely to be consistent with the basic outline shown in the Plan.   

·         Though the Circular Economy Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China has long be existing, the Plan is the first individual document related to this field embedded into China’s Five-Year Plans. In the 13th Five-Year Plan, the circular economy was emphasized as one of the key points within the grand 13th Five-Year Plan. It shows a position rise on the strategic level, and a signal that China is breaking down its carbon goals to a more detailed level.  

However, China is still in the early stage under the right concepts in this field. An overall standardization has been established for circular economy in China, but is more subjected to industrial parks, specific sectors (e.g.: for recycling system evaluation) and waste/resource recycling usage (e.g.: water recycling etc.). The structure is preliminary and are more business oriented.  

The suggestions for MNCs and foreign stakeholders are:

·         Initiate green transition accordingly if the work hasn’t been started yet.

·         Those with business in China are suggested keep trying on the involvement to the relevant standardization. It might not be easy, but necessary. And China might in seek of successful practice in such fields.

·         Remain necessary and regular contact with administrative authorities, especially if there are questions or concerns generated by the document and uncertainties are raised due to the lack of detail practice instructions.

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