China faces ‘profound’ changes, vows ‘rapid’ development in five-year plan

China’s Communist Party refrains from direct mention of the US trade war, but stresses ‘consolidating national security’.

China’s ruling Communist Party has said it will focus on speeding up self-reliance in science and technology, after a four-day meeting that approved a draft of the party’s next five-year development plan.

China faces “profound and complex” changes and rising uncertainty, an announcement issued on state media said on Thursday. It added that it would strive for “rapid economic development” and “consolidating national security”.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Despite US push, China poised to dominate rare earths for years
• list 2 of 3How will China tackle its many challenges in the coming five years?
• list 3 of 3US-China now in a ‘very different kind of trade war’, experts warn

It also promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people’s livelihoods, without providing details on how it intends to curb China’s overreliance on exports.

The communique did not directly mention the trade war with United States President Donald Trump, but the move comes as the US imposes increasingly tight controls on China’s access to semiconductors and other high-tech items.

China’s leader Xi Jinping is expected to meet Trump for talks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea next week. The US president has said he is aiming to seal a “fair” trade deal despite the recent row over tariffs.

Beijing has a near-monopoly in rare earths production, indispensable to global defence and semiconductor industries, and is expected to use this as leverage in the upcoming trade talks.

Last week, tensions between China and the US soared as Beijing announced new curbs on its rare earths exports and Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to 100 percent.

On Monday, Trump appeared to put recent strife behind the pair, saying the two countries needed to thrive together and announcing that he would visit China early next year after receiving an invitation from Beijing.

Breaking China’s dominance over rare earth supplies is likely to take at least a decade, if not longer, according to analysts and industry experts.

The self-sufficiency push faces challenges including high capital costs, gaps in technical expertise and environmental risks.