On October 28, 2025, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) deliberated and adopted the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2026–2030) (hereinafter referred to as “the Recommendations"), charting the course and establishing the fundamental guidelines for China's economic and social development over the next five years.

It contains 15 chapters with 61 key points in total, and the overall key deployments stated in the Recommendations include:

-   Building a modernized industrial system 

Consolidating and enhancing the foundations of the real economy, upgrading traditional industries, fostering emerging industries and industries of the future, promoting the high-quality and efficient development of the service sector, and developing a modernized infrastructure system.

-   Achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology 

Promoting advances in original innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, promoting full integration between technological and industrial innovation, pursuing the integrated development of education, science and technology, and human resources, advancing the Digital China Initiative, and steering the development of new quality productive forces.

-   Building a robust domestic market

Boosting consumption, expanding effective investment, resolutely eliminating bottlenecks and obstacles hindering the development of a unified national market, and fostering a new pattern of development.

-   Deepening reform and opening up

Developing a high-standard market economy, stimulating the vitality of all market entities, promoting high-standard opening up, and pursuing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

-   Promoting coordinated urban-rural and regional development

Accelerating agricultural and rural modernization, refining the regional economic layout, and promoting people-centered new urbanization.

-   Developing into a country with a strong culture

Inspiring the cultural creativity of the entire nation and fostering a thriving culture.

-   Improving public wellbeing and promoting common prosperity

Ensuring and improving public wellbeing, promoting high-quality full employment, improving the income distribution system, improving the social security system, advancing the Healthy China Initiative, and promoting high-quality population development.

-   Promoting green and low-carbon transition

Accelerating the green transition across the board, pressing ahead with the critical battle against pollution and the drive to upgrade ecosystems, moving faster to develop a new type of energy system, and working actively and prudently toward peaking carbon emissions.

-   Ensuring both development and security

Modernizing China's national security system and capacity, building up national security capacity in key sectors, enhancing public safety governance, improving the social governance system, and modernizing national defense and the armed forces.

The 15^th Five-year Plan is considered a key transition period of the country in its pursuit of realizing basic modernization by 2035 (the last year of the 16^th Five-year Plan), and a solid and stable economic development in the 15^th Five-year Plan period will lay a more solid foundation for the country’s goal. In such context, the Recommendations set seven major objectives regarding economic development:

-   Achieving significant progress in high-quality development;

-   Making substantial improvements in scientific and technological self-reliance and strength;

-   Securing fresh breakthroughs in further deepening reform comprehensively;

-   Achieving notable cultural and ethical progress across society;

-   Further improving the quality of life for the people;

-   Making major new strides in advancing the beautiful China initiative;

-   Achieving further advances in strengthening the national security shield.

In regards of standardization and relevant work, standards, rules, and standardized construction are mentioned in multiple areas, highlighting their fundamental and guiding role in high-quality development as below:

-   In building a modernized industrial system, it calls for strengthening standard-based guidance and making it more internationalized and stepping up efforts to improve standards in the service sector.

-   In promoting technological innovation, it requires improving standards for trade in services and refining relevant laws, regulations, policies, systems, application standards, and ethical codes for AI governance.

-   Identifying unified market base institution and rules and establishing well-aligned distribution rules and standards as key measures to eliminate market segmentation and reduce logistics costs.

-   Proposing to adopt sound standards for green and low-carbon development and improve the systems for environmental standards to support pollution prevention and control.

-   Emphasizing the role of social norms like citizens' codes of conduct in improving the social governance system, and requiring the improvement of national security legal, strategy, [and] policy systems.

-   Identifying enhanced connectivity in terms of…rules and standards as a key direction for high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

-   Proposing to promote interoperability between military and civilian standards to consolidate and improve integrated national strategies and strategic capabilities.

For foreign stakeholders, the Recommendation is a key document as a preview for the country’s finalized 15^th Five Year Plan as the general principle and framework of are very likely to be adopted into the final document.

Specifically on the potential impacts that the contents related to standardization, once really listed in the final 15^th Five-year Plan, the measures currently specified in the Recommendations are expected to significantly enhance the strategic position of standards and standardization work. For foreign manufacturers and importers, the impact may come in opposite directions: while market access in China may become stricter as national rules and standards may put on more technical requirements for ensuring safety and green relevant topics, the emphasis on keep opening-up and integrate with global market shall facilitate MNCs and foreign stakeholders on the other hand.

An official English version of the full text is issued by the Central Committee of CPC, and it can be downloaded at:

https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202510/28/content_WS6900adb9c6d00ca5f9a07216.html