CKN Knowledge Session - China's 15th Five-Year Plan

China’s new five-year plan for 2026–2030 will be unveiled this week, marking a key moment in the country’s economic and political trajectory. As China’s principal strategic planning instrument, the five-year plan sets out overarching priorities for economic reform, industrial policy, technological development, social governance and national security. The forthcoming plan – the 15th since the 1950s – will shape policy debates and implementation processes not only at the central level in Beijing, but across provinces, municipalities and state-owned enterprises in the years ahead.

In this China Knowledge Network Knowledge Session, Sense Hofstede will examine what the new five-year plan means in substance and in process. What exactly is a five-year plan? How does it move from a high-level blueprint adopted in Beijing to concrete policy through layers of local implementation?

Programme

15:15 – 15:30 | Doors open

15:30 – 15:35 | Opening Floris Harm

15:35 – 16:15 | Presentation Sense Hofstede

16:15 – 17:00 | Moderated Q&A

Sense Hofstede PhD is a researcher and teacher specializing in the politics and foreign policy of China, Singapore and Taiwan. His work focuses in particular on the Chinese party-state and the international relations of the Indo-Pacific. Drawing on his expertise in Chinese political institutions and policy processes, he will provide a structured analysis of the new five-year plan and its wider geopolitical and economic implications.