Abstract:

The narrative logic by which the Communist Party of China (CPC) leads China’s development is embodied in the development concepts and discursive signs deployed in the practices of revolution, construction, reform, and the New Era—signs that both reflect and guide development practice. The Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee on formulating five-year plans for national economic and social development constitute an authoritative textual expression of this logic. A textual analysis of the Recommendations issued since reform and opening-up reveals a clear trajectory in the evolution of the CPC’s development narrative system across such discursive dimensions as the economic system, task orientation, problems and challenges, and stage-specific goals. The system’s fundamental ideological core consists of affirming the Party and the people as a unified subject of development, empowering reform and innovation as drivers of development, safeguarding developmental order through stability and security, and reinforcing a mode of development thinking that combines a focus on the central task with comprehensive coordination. The Recommendations articulate the Party’s development concepts, perform the practical function of guiding development through narrative, and promote exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and international approaches to development.

Key words: Communist Party of China (CPC), guiding development, five-year plans, narrative, textual analysis