Post-Plenum Analysis: China’s Third Plenary Session

058 – 19 July 2024 The authors' views are their own and do not represent the official position of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies of the S. [...] mailto:RSISPublications@ntu.edu.sg The 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China outlined the broad direction for economic development and policy reform in its recently concluded third plenary session, setting the tone for upcoming key documents, including the Politburo meeting on economic work and the 15th five-year plan (2026-2030). [...] Economics: Chinese-style Modernisation As the last third plenary session in 2018 departed from tradition to focus on deepening reforms to the party and state institutions, this year’s third plenum was the first in the last decade to re-focus on economic issues. [...] Once considered the factory of the world, oriented towards the lower value-added manufacturing sectors of the supply chain, China is now strengthening knowledge-intensive, higher value-added industries and supply chains in the global market. [...] However, given the current context of Sino-American competition, the CCP aims to leverage technology in the CCP’s goal to “basically modernise the country’s governance system and capacity and realise socialist modernisation” by 2035.