In our fifth webinar of the 2025/26 edition of the “Staying in Dialogue with China” webinar series (https://www.chinamacro.ch/webinar), which is this time dedicated to the theme of China’s next and upcoming 15th Five-Year-Plan (2026-2030), we talked to YAO Yang, former Dean of the National School for Development at PKU.

This webinar dialogue with leading Chinese economist Yao Yang will discuss the “Proposition” (建议) as endorsed by the «Fourth Plenum» of the CCP’s 20th Central Committee held between 20 and 23 October 2025 which defined the policy substance that is now guiding the state bureaucracy to draft the national 15th Five-Year-Plan (2026-2030).

This 15th FYP will be deliberated, formally endorsed by the NPC and published in the first half of March 2026. This dialogue is primarily targeting European business to provide a clearer sense of how the Chinese market and economy as a strategic business context for international business are evolving.

Key questions that will be discussed in this dialogue include:

• what the policy slogan “investing in people” (投资于人) really means,
• how the “new-quality productive forces” as industrial policy framework succeeding MIC25 are being planned,
• will there be a stronger emphasis on China’s new growth drivers such as household consumption and services,
• how China can increase its Total Factor Productivity (TFP),
• if China’s “anti-involution” measures show momentum,
• what new and proactive wordings of China’s agency (主动运筹国际空间、塑造外部环境) and goals (支持全球南方联合自强) in foreign affairs mean,
• and if there will be a general policy recalibration towards less emphasis on security compared to development interests.

Join us for this webinar dialogue to help you better anticipate key policy priorities and shifts of China’s next Five-Year-Plan.

This webinar will be moderated by Markus Herrmann Chen, Co-Founder and Managing Director of CMG. Take the opportunity to listen in and ask your questions to YAO Yang.

YAO Yang is a professor and dean of the Dishuihu Advanced Finance Institute at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and a visiting professor at Peking University. He previously served as dean of Peking University’s National School of Development and is the founding editor of China Economic Quarterly. He chairs the China Economic Annual Conference, the Foundation of Modern Economics and the supervision committee of CF40, and is a member of the China Economist 50 Forum.

Dr. Yao’s research focuses on political economy, China’s economic transition and development, and political philosophy. He has published widely in leading journals, including China Social Sciences, American Economic Review, American Political Science Review, and Management Science, and is the author or editor of more than a dozen books.

His awards include the Sun Yefang Award in Economic Science (2008 and 2014), the Pu Shan Award in International Economics (2008 and 2010), and the Zhang Peigang Award in Development Economics (2008). He is also a fellow of the International Economic Association. Dr. Yao received his BS and MS from Peking University and his PhD in development economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.