As China’s leaders chart the next 5-year plan, they hear echoes from long ago
Growing geopolitical challenges of today resemble those faced in the 1950s as Beijing seeks to navigate a complex new security landscape
The growing external challenges of today have similarities to those the country faced in the 1950s – export controls, restricted access to technology and a complex security environment. Amid elevated US-China tensions, Beijing is facing another moment of reckoning at a crossroads between pressure and transformation.
On Monday morning, Xinhua published an article stating that over the past five years, China had “navigated shifting circumstances amid storms and challenges to forge new paths”.
The current global geopolitical landscape mirrors the Cold War era, with the former US-Soviet rivalry largely replaced by the escalating US-China competition, with historical parallels particularly visible in economic and security dynamics.
When Beijing launched its first five-year plan amid US sanctions during the Korean war, trade embargoes and isolation forced China to adopt state economic planning to industrialise in defiance of containment, and the country faced mounting concerns over regional security threats.