China's National People's Congress is meeting in Beijing this week to, among other things, adopt the 12th 5-Year Plan (2011-2015). I've co-written an article analyzing the plan with Wang Qun, an IU doctoral student and the RCCPB's program officer. The article was just published on the website of Foreign Policy. Unfortunately, they weren't able to include a handy table we developed that compares the goals of this new plan with that of the 11th 5-Year Plan (2006-2010). You can see that by clicking here > Download Data 11th 12th 5Yr Plans Mar 11.
One issue we didn't have space to elaborate on in the article is the the growing distance between central plans and actual economic behavior. Standing between the two are a whole series of policies, laws, and regulations that wait to be adopted, and equally important, companies, industry associations, other NGO's, and individuals. They will both contribute to the content of more specific policies and be directly involved in the economic implementation. Their preferences and actions are only partly shaped by government desires. That said, we do think that on the whole the goals described in the new plan are generally achievable.
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