China’s Fourth Plenum: Xi’s economic course stays put, elite purges deepen, and a step toward taking Taiwan

From October 20 to 23, 2025, the fourth plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing, traditionally focused on economic planning.

Following its outcomes, Xi Jinping outlined the conceptual guidelines for the next “five-year plan” (2026–2030), defining the current period as a transitional stage between “the past and the future” on the path to “socialist modernization” by 2035.

The key priorities of the new cycle were declared to be the intensification of scientific and technological development, the formation of a “unified national market,” and achieving greater “self-sufficiency” by reducing dependence on external supply chains.