How Does the Five-year Plan Promote China's Economic Development?

The main feature of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics is that the development of national economy is planned. Through sorting out the development history of the 13 five-year plans, this paper finds that the planning is popular among the public, the planning context is historic inheritance, the planning objectives are logical progressiveness, and the planning implementation is practical and exploratory. The role of the five-year plan in China's economic development is reflected in the following aspects: first, the proposal of the five-year plan is targeted to China's economic reality. Second, the five-year plan can promote China's economic development. Third, the historical experience of the five-year plan has implications for China's economic future. The enlightenment is that we should respect the objective economic law as the premise, take firm and practical asymptotic development as the principle, take the pace of seek improvement in stability reform as the rhythm, take scientific and powerful policy measures as the guarantee, and take the path of building a new pattern of domestic and international double circulation.


Introduction
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, social progress has been made, people's living standards have been significantly improved, and China's economy has achieved great development. The five-year plan is a key to understand the miracle of China's development. It is not only an important tool for creating China's economic miracle and maintaining macro stability, but also an important tool for promoting social development and facilitating the transformation of China's development model (Hu et al., 2011). As the most characteristic national economic operation and social development management tool in China, the five-year plan can reflect the development history of China's socialist economy and has made an important contribution to China's glorious economic achievements and the overall building of a moderately prosperous society. This paper hopes to derive the successful experience of China's economy from the evolutionary logic of the five-year plan and provide lessons for the development of the world economy. doi: 10.36689/uhk/hed/2021-01-078

The Development History of the Five-year Plan of New China
After years of war, New China was faced with a shattered economy with a deformed development structure and a disrupted market. In order to repair the severely damaged productivity and make material and institutional preparations for the fiveyear plan in the Party Central Committee defined the period from 1949 to 1952 as a period of national economic recovery. The rural areas completed the land reform, and farmers obtained about 700 million mu of land and a large amount of production materials without compensation. The city carried out the reform of enterprise management system and property right relationship, and began to establish state- The 2nd Five-year Plan was guided by the policy of "more speed, better savings," and although the production of iron and steel soared, due to the imbalance of resource allocation and economic structure, some light industrial products supply has problems.
Due to the break-up of Sino Soviet relations and the sudden change of the international environment such as the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. During the period of the 3rd Five- year Plan and the 4th Five-year Plan, China's national defense industry has made great progress. Due to the excessive investment in the "Third Line Construction", the total demand of the society swelled and led to the disproportion of the economy. The 5th Five-year Plan has made great efforts to turn the tide, re-establish the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, and shift the focus to socialist modernization construction in time.
The 6th Five-year Plan carefully summed up the experience of the previous construction period, made an overall plan for major national construction projects and productivity distribution (Yang,2019), and put forward the guiding ideology of "all economic activities should focus on improving economic benefits" (National People's Congress,1982). During the period of the 7th Five-year Plan, planned economy and planned commodity economic system coexisted. From 1988 to 1989, the price double track system opened a new chapter in China's economic system reform and played a prelude to the transformation of economic development strategy and economic management system to a new model.
The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held during the 8th Five-year Plan period officially set the establishment of socialist market economic system as the goal of reform. The socialist market economic system has been gradually established. During the 9th Five-year Plan period, "the economic system has changed from the traditional planned economic system to the socialist market economic system, and the mode of economic growth has changed from extensive type to intensive type" (National People's Congress, 1996).
The 10th Five-year plan put forward more targeted goals, such as strategic adjustment of economic structure, significant improvement of economic growth quality and efficiency, and the traditional "directive plan" begins to withdraw from the economic system. The average annual growth rate of GDP from 2002 to 2007 is 11.9%, which is the longest period of economic growth after the reform and opening up (Ma, 2018). As early as 2008, most of the tasks of the main indicators of the 11th Five-year Plan were completed. Two years later, China's GDP rose to the second place in the world. In the aftershocks of the international financial crisis, there are still some problems in China's economic and social development, such as imbalance, uncoordinated and unsustainable. Therefore, the 12th Five-year Plan pointed out that we should take scientific development as the theme, relying on science and technology and human capital growth to drive economic growth. As China's economic development entering the new normal, with the new development concept of "Innovation, Coordination, Green, Open and Sharing", and the main line of supply side structural reform, the 13th Five-year Plan proposed to coordinate the overall layout of "Five-in-One" and "Four Comprehensives" to ensure the realization of the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.
We summarize the 13 five-year plans in Table 1, based on the historical role they have played.

The Basic Features of the Five-year Plan
Using development planning to guide economic and social development is an important way for China's Party to govern the country. Development planning can give full play to the decisive role of the market in the allocation of resources, but also to better play the role of the government. The basic features of the five-year plan are as follows.

The Five-year Plan Shows the History Inheritance
China's 13 five-year plans have realized the national overall development strategy with the longest time, the largest scale and the largest number of participants in human history. The fundamental reason for achieving the above record is that the Party Central Committee accurately grasped the process and strategic steps of China's economic and social development, and local governments at all levels earnestly implemented the fiveyear plans. The domestic economic and social development level has achieved unprecedented development in the past 70 years since the founding of New China, despite the great changes in the international environment. It can be seen that only when the domestic environment is stable, the development line is firm and the implementation is firm, can the five-year plan realize long-term historical inheritance.

The Goal of the Five-year Plan Shows a Logical Progression
As can be seen from Table 1

The Compilation of the Five-year Plan Reflects the Wide Range of Public Opinion
Through extensive discussions, revisions and improvements during the formulation process, the five-year plan has become increasingly scientific, democratized and standardized (Huang, 2020 As we can see, the process of introducing the five-year plan actually reflects the real needs and specific suggestions of all sectors of society, and the outline of the plan reflects the greatest social consensus, expresses the development will of the whole nation, and forms the spiritual roadmap on the road of China's development.

The Five-year Planning Process Reflects the Exploratory Nature of Economic Practice
From the 1st Five-year Plan to the 5th Five-year Plan, the starting point of the Party and the government's economic work was to establish a highly centralized socialist Furthermore, the core position of property rights was clarified during the 10th Five-year Plan period. The 11th Five-year Plan emphasized that the government should play an increasingly important role in ecological and environmental protection, regional coordinated development, urban-rural relations, development of science, education, culture and health, social security and public services. The 12th Five-year Plan emphasized that "economic system reform is the key to comprehensively deepen the reform, and the core issue is to properly handle the relationship between the government and the market, so that the market can play a decisive role in the allocation of resources and give better play to the role of the government" (National People's Congress, 2013). So far, the relationship between the government and the market has been clearly defined, and is committed to the realization of an effective market and a responsive government.
It can be seen that the practice process of the five-year plan is also the process of the Party's continuous exploration for the laws of socialist economic development, especially the understanding of the relationship between plan and market, government and market is full of tortuous exploration.

China's Economic Development During the Five-year Planning Period
Since the implementation of the five-year plan, China's economy has made considerable progress. Table 2 summarizes the statistical data of China's total GDP and per capita GDP at the end of each five-year plan, as well as the proportion of China's GDP in the world.   Germany, and in 2010 it overtook Japan, achieving a triple jump to second place in the world, and it has remained there ever since.

How Does the Five-year Plan Promote China's Economic Development?
Although the role of the government in economic development is different between the planned economy and the market economy. The socialist market economy system in China determines the dominance of the Party and the government in the formulation and implementation of the five-year plan, which inevitably brings about the promotion of the five-year plan to China's economic development. In the following, this paper provides an in-depth analysis of how the five-year plan promotes China's economic development. Weak industrial base and weak state-owned economy.
To drive the overall construction with big projects, and to lay down and develop China's socialist industrial system with foreign aid as an auxiliary measure.
the 2nd Fiveyear Plan The "Great Leap Forward" Movement.
In 1960, the policy of "adjustment, consolidation, enrichment and improvement" was introduced to correct and rectify the situation.
the 3rd Fiveyear Plan Risk of external war.
Take national security as the starting point, adjust the national industrial layout and tend to the old, small and poor areas for economic construction.
the 4th Fiveyear Plan Too high front-end target and too large infrastructure.
Put forward the task of accelerating the development of light industry and promoting the comprehensive balance of the national economy.
the 5th Fiveyear Plan The national economy was devastated by political turmoil and the "leftist" erroneous ideology of seeking success in a hurry.
Re-establish the ideological line of "seeking truth from facts" and shift the focus of work to socialist modernization.
the 6th Fiveyear Plan The level of economic development lags behind and people's living standards are not high.
Establish the policy that "all economic activities should be centered on improving economic efficiency" and the strategic goal of quadrupling the annual gross output value of industry and agriculture by the end of the 20th century.
Carried out efforts to reform the economic system and promote a linear paradigm shift in economic development strategies and economic management systems.
the 8th Fiveyear Plan China's reform enters crossroads, ideological rigidity under dramatic changes in Eastern Europe.
Emancipate the mind, "be more daring in reform and opening up", and make the establishment of a socialist market economy system the goal of reform.
the 9th Fiveyear Plan Low economic efficiency of enterprises, the existing economic system does not adapt to the requirements of the development of socialist market economy.
Put forward the "economic system from the traditional planned economic system to the socialist market economic system, economic growth from the sloppy to intensive transformation", giving nine important guidelines.
the 10th Fiveyear Plan Backward production methods that consume a lot of energy and operate in a sloppy manner for economic development.
Propose strategies to strengthen ecological construction, environmental protection and sustainable economic and social development.

the 11th Fiveyear Plan
Imbalance of urban-rural and regional development, insufficient economic structure.
Put forward the coordinated development of urban and rural areas, accelerate the transformation of economic growth, improve the ability of independent innovation and other "six must" principles.
the 12th Fiveyear Plan Uneven and unsustainable economic development. Put forward the "five persistent" basic requirements.
the 13th Fiveyear Plan The overlap of "growth rate shift period, structural adjustment pain period, the previous policy digestion period", effective demand and effective supply are insufficient.
Put forward the five major development concepts of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing" to lead China to a moderately prosperous society.

The Proposal of the Five-year Plan is Targeted to China's Economic Reality
As can be seen from the above table, the five-year plan has a very strong realistic relevance, and dares to face the shortcomings and difficulties in each development period, not avoiding the problems, facing up to them and giving scientific and wise response guidelines and strategic planning. The realistic relevance of the five-year plan makes it a powerful guarantee for China's economic growth and promotes the rapid and healthy development of China's economy (see Table 4).

The Implementation of the Five-year Plan Tasks Has a Catalytic Effect on China's Economic Development
Generally speaking, the implementation of the 13 five-year plans has promoted China's economy in the following aspects: the first five-year plans focused on building a socialist economic system, while the latter five-year plans focused on economic system reform, resulting in the increase of China's economic volume and the improvement of economic quality.
The five-year plan improved China's economic system and gradually formed a complete industrial system and national economic system. China's industrial base was weak at the beginning of the founding of New China, but after the "4th Five-year Plan", a relatively complete industrial system and national economic system were initially established. The five-year plans promoted the reform of China's economic system and realized the transformation of China from a planned economy, a planned commodity economy, to a socialist market economy. The five-year plans propelled China's economic expansion and a sharp rise in the world ranking of GDP. As seen in Part 4, China's GDP world ranking shows a "V" shaped trend and China has become an important engine of world economic development.

The Historical Experience of the Five-year Plans Have Lessons for the Future of China's Economy
Summarizing the experience and lessons learned from the previous 13 five-year plans can provide a clear understanding of China's current historical point and stage of development, so as to provide reference for the preparation of scientific and reasonable five-year plans, and set more strategic and feasible goals to promote the sustained and positive development of China's economy and society.
First, the setting of overly aggressive development goals should be prevented.
Although the five-year plan drew on a wide range of recommendations in setting its goals, its implementation was sometimes influenced by certain factors that raised the original plan's targets and brought about adventurous behavior beyond the stage of economic development. For example, the 2nd Five-year Plan was based on the idea of high speed. During the 3rd Five-year Plan, the actual implementation of the plan was adjusted to "war preparation as the center" due to the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations and national defense considerations. During the 4th Five-year Plan, the main focus was on the strategic rear construction of the "Great Third Front", which was characterized by high speed and high targets.
Second, the law of economic development should be respected and strong policy measures should be mastered. 1985-1988 price reform caused a sharp rise in prices and the emergence of "two prices for one product, resulting in planned products being left outside the plan, and outside the plan changing hands, with a large amount of national wealth falling into the pockets of private individuals and small groups" as predicted by Guo et al. (1985). The reasons for this are, the lack of understanding of the laws of the economic cycle, expectations were misguided at the time and inappropriate macro policy measures.

6.Conclusion
This paper compares the historical roles played by each of the five-year plans since the founding of New China. On this basis, the paper concludes that the five-year plan has shown historical inheritance, logical progression in their objectives, extensive public opinion in their preparation, and tortuous exploration in their practice. Further, the fiveyear plan has promoted China's economic development in the following ways. First, the five-year plan is relevant to China's economic reality. Second, the five-year plan is of great significance to China's economic development. Third, the historical experience of the five-year plan can be used for reference for the future development of China's economy. In the formulation and implementation of the next five-year plan, we should respect the objective economic laws as the premise, take the steady and steady progressive development as the principle, take the pace of reform as the rhythm, take the scientific and powerful policy measures as the guarantee, and take the construction of a new pattern of domestic and international dual circulation as the path to further improve the modern economic system proposed in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.