China's vision for the future bright

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China approved an amendment to the Party Constitution to enshrine "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in a New Era". The congress also produced a blueprint for China's development until 2050, one that reflects the changes that economic reform and opening-up have brought to the country.

With that in mind, the 19th Party Congress charted a new road map, based on the "two centennial goals" inherited from the 18th Party Congress - to build a "moderately prosperous society" (xiaokang) by 2021, and to transform China into a "fully developed and advanced nation" by 2049.

The 19th Party Congress went some way toward marking the path between these two goals, asserting that once the first centennial goal is realized, the next task will be to modernize Chinese society by 2035. Such a modern China would be a world leader in innovation, with a clean environment, a large middle-income group, and a much narrower gap between rural and urban growth, public services, and living standards.