I recently read through China's 15th Five Year Plan 2025-2030
https://npcobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026-Government-Work-Report_NON-FINAL_EN.pdf to see what I could see.
There were 7 mentions of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism in 46 pages but the word Communism did not appear. This is a practical document, confirming my feeling that logistics is often more important than politics.
Here's what they say about energy and the environment:
"A drop of 5.1 percent in energy consumption per unit of GDP contributed to continued improvement in the environment."
Starting with energy efficiency warms my heart.
"The installed capacity of new-type energy storage exceeded 130 gigawatts (a mix of pumped hydro and batteries, compressed air, flywheels...), and the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption reached 21.7 percent. China announced its 2035 Nationally Determined Contributions to respond to climate change, demonstrating our commitment as a responsible major country."
"We will improve the policies for promoting green and low-carbon development, launch initiatives for upgrading quality, lowering costs, and reducing carbon emissions in key industries, and drive forward the development of zero-carbon industrial parks and factories. We will set up a national fund for low-carbon transition and foster new growth drivers such as hydrogen power and green fuels. We will exercise tight and effective regulation over energy-intensive and high-emission projects, accelerate efforts to phase out outdated production capacity, and support innovation and application of green and low-carbon technologies and equipment. The systems for total resource consumption control and comprehensive resource conservation will be improved, and recycling of recyclable materials will be stepped up."
"In cities at and above the prefectural level, the proportion of days with good or excellent air quality rose to 89.3 percent. With our forest coverage rising past 25 percent, China achieved the world’s fastest and largest increase in forest resources. We also created the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system."
"We will actively yet prudently work toward peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality."
"We will implement the system of controlling both the total amount and intensity of carbon emissions and refine the systems for carbon emissions statistics and accounting as well as carbon footprint management. The coverage of the China Carbon Emission Trade Exchange will be expanded. An outline of the plan for strengthening China’s energy sector will be formulated. We will build a new electric power system, accelerate the construction of smart grids, develop new types of energy storage, and promote more extensive use of green electricity. We will also promote clean and efficient use of fossil fuels."
The Chinese have obviously thought this out and are saying the right things. Even more importantly, China seems to be doing it while developing the products that make it possible for the rest of the world, at increasingly affordable prices, to do the same.
Energy and the environment, electricity and food, are also a focus of their national security program:
"Guided by a holistic approach to national security, the draft Outline proposes various tasks and measures to modernize China’s national security system and capacity. It highlights the need to improve supply capacity for food, energy, and resources, and envisages increases in overall grain production capacity to 725 million metric tons and in overall energy production capacity to the equivalent of 5.8 billion metric tons of standard coal."
As for the future, China plans to
"... foster emerging pillar industries such as integrated circuits, aviation and aerospace, biomedicine, and the low-altitude economy. To nurture industries of the future such as future energy, quantum technology, embodied AI, brain-computer interfaces, and 6G technology, mechanisms will be put in place to increase funding and share risks in these fields."
Spending a little time with the 15th Five Year Plan was a useful exercise. I learned a lot and liked the way the Chinese Communist Party speaks to the people or, at least, the bureaucrats. It is a well written and very clear document.
