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China - 6th Five-Year Plan 1980-1985

The culmination of Deng Xiaoping' s re-ascent to power and the start in earnest of political, economic, social, and cultural reforms were achieved at the Third Plenum of the National Party Congress's Eleventh Central Committee in December 1978. The Third Plenum is considered a major turning point in modern Chinese political history. "Left" mistakes committed before and during the Cultural Revolution were "corrected," and the "two whatevers" policy ("support whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made and follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave") was repudiated. The classic party line calling for protracted class struggle was officially exchanged for one promoting the Four Modernizations. In the future, the attainment of economic goals would be the measure of the success or failure of policies and individual leadership; in other words, economics, not politics, was in command.

Late in 1979, after the Ten-Year Plan was discredited, the State Planning Commission began to prepare the Sixth Five-Year Plan. After several revisions, it was finally approved by the Fifth Session of the Fifth National Congress on December 10, 1982. !I It is the first plan under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang, an.d Zhao Ziyang, who established the guidelines for the planners. Compared with the previous plans, the Sixth Five-Year Plan is characterized by moderate growth targets, comprehensive coverage of sectors of the economy, and reliance on foreign capital and technology. The plan stressed quality control, consumers' needs, and energy conservation. It appeared that most targets in the plan could be fulfilled.

Although full scale industrial management reforms had been delayed until after 1985, Beijing was pushing forward selected trial reforms in several critical areas. Chinese statements announced new initiatives in reforming industrial administration, commerce, and the tax and wage systems, while continuing previous reforms in industry and agriculture. Larger economic and political considerations such as Party rectification and government reorganization, however, precluded widespread movement on most economic reforms until after 1985. The attention to reform by 1985, nevertheless, stood in distinct contrast to 1982, when the reform movement was in the doldrums, and signaled that pro-reform elements in the government felt strong enough to press their case again.

In his December 1982 report on the 6th Five-Year Plan to the National People's Congress (NPC), Premier Zhao Ziyang addressed the topic of economic management reforms in industry and commerce, which were slowed in 1981 because of unanticipated side-effects and political opposition. He argued that the government still intended to carry out reforms, but that conditions would not be ripe for full-scale reforms -- including all-important price reforms -- until the Sixth Five-Year Plan was completed in 1985.

The primary task of the Sixth Five-Year Plan was to continue the readjustment of the national economy, to correct structural imbalances, and reduce inflationary pressures. In order to accomplish these general goals, the plan would pursue balanced growth policies so that the proportional relationships among agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry would be more reasonable. The current restrictions on capital investment would also continue as an integal part of the plan to help maintain the proper ratio between accumulation and consumption and to ensure that priority areas receive sufficient funding. The production of consumer goods was also being emphasized to ensure that the quantity of products available keeps pace with rising purchasing power so that prices would increase as little as possible. In addition, the problem of national budget deficits was being attacked by seeking to improve economic efficiency to help expand the revenues received by the state and, therefore, meet expenditures.

In general, the PRC leadership acknowledged that the readjustments and reforms will continue - as the overall economic structure, enterprise management, and resource planning'are altered. In order to alleviate the basic economic imbalances, Beijing assigned top priority to the development of agriculture, energy, transportation, communications, education, and scientific research. It was anticipated that by emphasizing these areas where the most fundamental problems exist, the economic bottlenecks can be broken. If these underlying difficulties can at least be overcome enough to allow significant growth, then the other economic sectors, including the military, will be able to accelerate their modernization.

A major aspect of the long-term program is to conduct more effective economic and technical interactions with other countries especially the US, other Western countries, and Japan. The importation of advanced technology as part of an overall trade expansion combined with the increased use of foreign credits will enable Beijing to facilitate its economic development program. The Chinese leadership recognized that this interaction combined with "capitalist' experiments of decentralized decisionmaking and a limited market system were vital aspects of their modernization planning.