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The five-year plan
Command performance
The Communist Party is about to set its goals for 2020
Oct 24th 2015 | SHANGHAI | From the print edition
IN 1953, taking cues from their Soviet advisers, Chinese leaders launched their first five-year plan. They charted a course for rapid industrialisation of the then-agrarian country. Now they are drafting their 13th such document. It will show how much has changed. Its main message will be that industrialisation has run its course and that China will have to find a new engine of growth. But the very existence of the plan (to run from 2016 to 2020) is indicative of how, in economic policymaking, much has stayed the same.
五年计划的历史演变。
take cues from sb/sth: to copy what sb else does as an example of how to behave or what to do
e.g. They are not only good at expressing their ideas and asking the right questions, but they also take cues well.
chart: to make a plan of what should be done to achieve a particular result
take/run its course: develop in the usual way and reach a natural end; 走到尽头；
近义表达: come to an end;
e.g. It seems the boom in World Music has run its course.
China will publish the first outline after an annual meeting of the Communist Party’s Central Committee at the end of October. It will be very different from the party’s early plans. It once set specific production targets for steel and grain, among other things—hallmarks of the central planning that led China so astray. Since the early 1980s, the role of the plans has been relaxed. They clarify medium-term policy priorities, but are not blueprints that must be adhered to slavishly.
五年计划今日的不同。
hallmark: a distinctive characteristic or attribute
astray: away from the right path or direction
slavish: obeying, supporting, or copying someone completely
Yet the plans are still important, not least because of the attention they receive. “They are large neon signs of where the party wants to take the country,” says Scott Kennedy of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank in Washington. Local officials scurry to adjust their rhetoric and policies to fall in line with the plan. Banks direct capital to the industries the plan seeks to boost. Companies, both state-owned and private, alter their business models accordingly.
五年计划对中国的重大作用。
not least: used to emphasize that something is important
e.g. My mother was upset about his appearance here, not least because she felt it was invading her privacy.
scurry: to move quickly with short steps, especially because you are in a hurry
e.g. People were scurrying off to work.
bring sb/sth, come, get, fall, etc. into line (with sb/sth): to behave or make sb/sth behave in the same way as other people
e.g. Now that France and Germany have signed up, other countries will soon fall into line.
e.g. Britain must be brought into line with the rest of Europe on taxes.
In recent years, the plans have come to encompass a wider range of priorities. Almost all the binding targets in the current one relate to the environment or social welfare. Officials were obliged to build 36m units of public housing, limit energy use and expand primary-school enrolment—all of which they accomplished, albeit sometimes by fiddling the numbers. Purely economic targets such as income growth and job creation were considered predictive, not mandatory.
五年计划所包含的范围越来越广。
encompass: to include a wide range of ideas, subjects, etc
e.g. The study encompasses the social, political, and economic aspects of the situation.
binding: a promise, agreement etc that must be obeyed；
e.g. a binding contract/promise/agreement etc
fiddle: to secretly change (something, such as information) in a harmful or dishonest way.
同义词: falsify, manipulate;
常用表达: fiddle the books=give false figures in a company's financial records
For all that, the most-watched part of the new plan will still be its target for GDP. The current one aims for average annual growth of 7% from 2011 to 2015. In reality, it is likely to be about 7.8%. In the past, targets were often set well below the potential growth rate. That could change with the new plan. State media have suggested the new target will be 6.5%, beyond what many forecast for the coming years.
GDP增长目标。
beyond: more or greater than a particular amount, level, or limit
e.g. More people are choosing to work beyond retirement age.
This could have big implications for economic policy. The farther growth slips below target, the more the government will be under pressure to stimulate the economy or, failing that, to doctor data. Given China’s already-heavy debt burden (see article) and analysts’ abiding cynicism about official statistics, neither outcome would be welcome. Some economists have called on China to abandon its growth target altogether, to give itself more breathing space. But Kuang Xianming of the China Institute for Reform and Development, a think-tank, says the GDP figure will remain in the plan, because it serves as a lodestar for all other economic policies.
GDP数据的重要性。
implication: possible effect/result
e.g. The research has far-reaching implications for medicine as a whole.
e.g. practical/financial/political etc implications
**slip **: to become worse or lower than before
e.g. Standards have slipped in many parts of the industry.
e.g. His popularity slipped further after a series of scandals.
doctor: to dishonestly change something in order to gain an advantage
e.g. doctored the evidence/figures
e.g. He had doctored his passport to pass her off as his daughter.
called on: to ask or demand that sb do sth
lodestar: a principle or fact that guides someone's actions
e.g. New York has long been a lodestar for urban governments the world over.(New York Times Jan 01, 2014)
There will be plenty of other targets to aim for. Just over 70m people still live under the official poverty line; the plan is likely to include a pledge to expand welfare payments to lift them all above it. The government has already started to relax its one-child policy; some believe the aim in the next five years will be to abolish it altogether. There will probably be objectives for reductions in carbon emissions, investment in high-tech industries and the building of megacities. Full details will not be released until March, when China’s parliament approves the plan.
报告中的其他目标。
pledge: a serious promise or agreement, especially one made publicly or officially
e.g. the government's pledge to make no deals with terrorists
Perhaps the most intriguing element is one that will remain unmentioned by state media: the historic milestone of the new document. Such plans are one of China’s cherished inheritances from the Soviets. But the Soviet Union collapsed before it was able to see its 13th one to completion. Beating the Soviets may provide China’s party with a bigger-than-usual incentive for the rest of the decade.
第十三个“五年计划”未被提及的意义——超越前苏联
intriguing: very interesting because of being unusual or not having an obvious answer
e.g. raise intriguing questions
an intriguing story / possibility
He found her intriguing.
inheritances: money, property etc that you receive from someone who has died
同义词: legacy, heritage, bequest
From the print edition: China