As discussed in our previous article on the topic, China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (“FYP”) is a vast document that outlines the country’s ambitious plans for the 2021-2025 period. Technology is a core focus of the plan, with several chapters dedicated to describing how China’s leaders hope to transform the country
Continue Reading China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025): Spotlight on Semiconductors

Ting Xiang
Ting Xiang is a policy advisor in the firm’s Beijing office. She specializes in providing strategic and policy advisory services for foreign and Chinese clients.
Ting, a non-lawyer, previously worked at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in Beijing, China, where she was responsible for analyzing Chinese government trade and investment-related policies, regulations, and bureaucratic structures. She was also actively involved in the planning and implementing of USTR trade policy programs and initiatives, including the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the US-China Joint Commission for Commerce and Trade. Prior to joining the Office of the USTR, Ting previously worked in the IPR Office and Trade Facilitation Office of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025): Signposts for Doing Business in China
On March 13, 2021, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) approved the outline of the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, covering the period 2021-2025. The plan’s economic and social development targets provide critical signposts that companies—both foreign and domestic—would be wise to heed when determining their own plans for the coming months and years in the Chinese market. The full text of the plan can be accessed here in its original Chinese. This article will be updated with a link to an English translation once it becomes available.
The five-year plan is the centerpiece of the Chinese system of industrial planning and policy. Reflecting the transformation of the country over the past 70 years, the content and purpose of the five-year plan has changed substantially since the first plan was issued in Mao Zedong’s China in 1953. As the economy has evolved from a pure command economy to one in which the market plays a greater role, albeit with substantial engagement and interventions by the government, the five-year plan has evolved as well. Early plans set production targets; modern plans are a mixture of principles, guidelines, and targets designed to steer the country’s development. This evolution has not reduced the importance of the five-year plan—it remains a central feature of the Chinese economic system—but it does affect how it should be interpreted and how its guidance is implemented in practice. Ultimately, the five-year plan’s purpose is to set strategic goals, focus government work, and guide the activities of market and non-market entities in China. In developing the 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s leaders set an ambitious agenda to “promote high-quality development in all aspects, including the economy, environment, and people’s livelihood and wellbeing, and realize the rise of China’s economy in the global industrial chain and value chain.”
Continue Reading China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025): Signposts for Doing Business in China