Ensuring progress and stability over the next five years
Steady progress, innovation at the core
China's 2026 government work report, marking the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, underscores a policy approach of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. With a balanced focus on economic targets and technological innovation, the report combines near-term feasibility with long-term vision while highlighting the role of new quality productive forces in driving high-quality development.
First, stability with forward momentum: pragmatic economic targets. The report sets the GDP growth target for 2026 at 4.5 to 5 percent, including the creation of over 12 million new urban jobs. These targets reflect current domestic and international conditions while leaving room for economic restructuring and the transition to new growth drivers. Fiscal and monetary policies are expected to work in tandem to expand domestic demand, stabilize investment, support trade-in programs for consumer goods, and accelerate major infrastructure projects. Rather than pursuing rapid expansion, the focus is on stability, efficiency and sustainable quality growth, laying a solid foundation for livelihoods and risk management.
Second, innovation as the key driver: technology and new productive forces at the forefront. Scientific and technological innovation are positioned as the central engine of development. The report calls for deepening the "AI Plus" initiative, building large-scale intelligent computing clusters and satellite internet infrastructure, and accelerating the commercialization and widespread application of AI. It also identifies integrated circuits, the low-altitude economy and biomedicine as emerging pillar industries, while planning ahead for future sectors such as quantum technology, brain-computer interfaces and 6G communications. With the support of "patient capital", these initiatives aim to nurture innovative enterprises and strengthen the entire chain from technological breakthroughs to industrial transformation and ecosystem development.
Overall, the 2026 government work report strikes a balance between stabilizing the present and shaping the future. By integrating technological innovation with industrial upgrading, it both anchors economic fundamentals and positions China to seize new opportunities in the global innovation landscape, providing a clear direction for the country's economic and social development in the years to come.
Yang Guoliang, a professor at the Institutes of Science and Development, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
































