China - Ten Key Tasks for 2026

third part
Continuing to outline the key guidelines of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the report focuses on specific strategic directions that will guide the Chinese government's work in 2026 and beyond. Beijing has set itself the ambitious goal of simultaneously developing technological strength, expanding the domestic market, strengthening social infrastructure, modernizing ecological and energy infrastructure, and ensuring comprehensive economic resilience and security. The following sections of the report detail the government's steps to achieve these goals, including measures in industrial upgrading, innovative development, social support, urbanization, regional alignment, green transformation, financial stability, and national security.

Ten Key Tasks for 2026 (continued)
6. Rural Revitalization
The sixth task is rural and agricultural development. China reaffirms that agriculture, rural areas, and farmers remain a top priority. The government plans to increase grain production potential by another 50 million tons, improve yields on large tracts of land, develop high-quality seeds, agricultural technology, and insurance, protect arable land and black soil, utilize saline soils, and reclaim abandoned land. Support mechanisms for key grain-producing regions are envisaged, as well as regular targeted assistance to vulnerable areas to prevent a large-scale return to poverty. At the same time, rural reforms will be advanced, including extending land contracts for another 30 years, developing larger and more efficient forms of agribusiness and collective economy, reforming forestry and cooperative institutions, and integrating agriculture, culture, and tourism.

7. Urbanization and Regional Development
The seventh block is dedicated to new urbanization and regional coordination. The government promises to facilitate urban registration for rural migrants and improve the distribution of transfers, land quotas, and infrastructure investments based on the actual granting of permanent resident status. China will continue urban renewal, redevelopment of old residential complexes and "urban villages," smarter urban management, age-appropriate and barrier-free adaptation, and improved urban infrastructure safety. Regional policy emphasizes supporting western regions, reviving the Northeast, the rise of central China, accelerating modernization in the east, and developing key urban clusters, including Xiong'an, the Yangtze Economic Belt, the Yellow River Basin, the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Zone, and special areas — border, national, and resource-poor.

8. Welfare and Social Services
The eighth task is social. China intends to prioritize high-quality employment, supporting labor-intensive industries, emerging professions, and disadvantaged groups, including youth, migrants, former military personnel, and those in flexible employment. In education, the plan calls for a reallocation of resources in response to demographic changes, the development of high-quality compulsory and preschool education, the expansion of regular high schools, an increase in enrollment in high-quality undergraduate programs, the development of vocational education, and the improvement of working conditions for teachers. In healthcare, Beijing promises to strengthen primary care, develop family medicine, combat chronic and rare diseases, strengthen emergency medicine and blood supply, and promote the integration of traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Basic health insurance subsidies for rural and unemployed urban residents will increase by 24 yuan per person. In the area of social protection, the plan envisages a further increase in basic pensions, expansion of insurance coverage, the development of an elderly care system, the construction of a "child-friendly society," housing support for young families and first-child families, expansion of parental leave guarantees, subsidized childcare services, and improved services for people with disabilities, children in difficult situations, women, and military families. Basic funeral services and multi-tiered social assistance are also specifically mentioned. The cultural block includes support for philosophy and the humanities, literature, cinema, television, the internet, libraries, museums, reading, the protection of cultural heritage, the development of cultural tourism, participation in the 2026 Asian Games, and the expansion of mass sports.

9. Green Transition
The ninth task is accelerating the green transformation. The government promises to improve air, water, and soil quality, combat emerging pollutants, strengthen waste management, expand environmental compensation, protect biodiversity and national parks, and continue large-scale forest conservation programs. The economic component of this agenda includes the development of zero-carbon industrial parks and factories, the creation of a national low-carbon transition fund, support for hydrogen energy and green fuels, and stricter oversight of energy-intensive and high-emission projects. At the same time, China plans to improve emissions statistics and accounting, carbon footprint management, and the coverage of the national carbon exchange, and to build a new electricity system, a smart grid, and new energy storage systems, as well as expand the use of "green electricity."

10. Risks, Security, and Resilience
The tenth task is risk prevention and mitigation. Regarding real estate, China is declaring a more targeted, city-focused approach: controlling the number of new projects, reducing excess housing inventory, improving supply, using some commercial housing as subsidized, reforming housing stock, and promoting "quality homes" — safe, comfortable, environmentally friendly, and smart. At the same time, the "white list" is being maintained as a tool for ensuring project completion and reducing debt risks. Regarding local debt, the government promises to expedite the repayment of hidden liabilities, strictly prohibit the accumulation of new hidden debt, restructure local government financing platforms, and create a more sustainable debt management system. In the financial sector, market-based and legal measures are planned for dealing with risky regional institutions, including recapitalization, the disposal of bad assets, and strengthened oversight and early warning systems. The national and public security section outlines the development of the national security system, enhancement of critical infrastructure security, strengthening of disaster preparedness, flood protection in northern China, development of a modern water network, improvement of disaster insurance, tighter oversight of food, medicine, and equipment safety, development of social workers and community organizations, introduction of new forms of local conflict resolution, enhancement of psychological support, strengthening of law enforcement mechanisms, and more aggressive efforts to combat telecom and internet fraud, drug trafficking, and organized crime.

Governance, State Apparatus, National Policy, and Defense
The final section of the document is devoted to the state itself. China explicitly states that new challenges require better government performance. The authorities promise to strengthen political discipline, reinforce commitment to the centralized leadership of the Party, deepen the fight against corruption, enhance the rule of law, expand transparency in public affairs, and improve communication with the public. Separate mention is made of the development of one-stop government services, digital government, reducing the burden on lower-level officials, improving the performance evaluation system for officials, and supporting public organizations such as trade unions, the Communist Youth League, women's federations, and others. This section also includes policies on national unity, the modernization of ethnic minority areas, the "Sinicization of religions" policy, outreach to overseas Chinese, protecting their rights, and new achievements in modernizing national defense and the armed forces. The government declares that it will continue to implement Xi Jinping's thoughts on strengthening the military and ensuring the Party's absolute leadership over the armed forces.

The Report's Main Thrust
Setting aside the official language, the document points to several clear conclusions.
First: China is not abandoning growth, but restructuring it. Exports and investment are no longer seen as the sole drivers; domestic demand, social spending, and technological self-sufficiency are increasingly taking center stage.
Second: China no longer conceals the fact that, in its view, the economy and security are inseparable. The report addresses GDP, chips, food, energy, debt, public safety, the environment, and the military in the same breath. This means that development, in the Chinese model, is understood as a system of comprehensive sustainability.
Third: Beijing is not retreating into isolation, but is transforming openness into a managed format. China still wants trade, investment, and the Belt and Road Initiative, but it is also emphasizing its own standards, technologies, supply chains, and macroeconomic logic.
Fourth: Social stability is not an appendage to the economy, but its foundation. That is why the report devotes so much space to employment, healthcare, pensions, childcare, rural incomes, regional equalization, and urban registration for migrants.
Fifth: China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan not as a "world factory," but as a system that aspires to be simultaneously a technological powerhouse, the largest domestic market, an environmental modernizer, and a geoeconomic force. The entire logic of the document is subordinated to this ambition.
Gulnara Safarli

SR-CENTER.INFO