The five year plan is interesting, because I was born in a country that worshipped its five year plans ("pětiletky"). It was the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Now the thing about five year plans was that they worked rather well at the beginning, so approximately until 1960. Back then, the economic power of a country was measured by its heavy industry, and in a post-WWII world where there was war damage to be fixed, an entire eastern part of the country (Slovakia) to be modernized from its earlier rural state, and new housing stock to be built, concentration of our five year plans on heavy industry made sense.
But slowly the world development started to diverge from the coal-and-steel line. And our central planners didn't take notice, or rather underestimated the significance of that development. They had, after all, a lot of success earlier with coal and steel, so they continued to plan for more coal and steel. Also, a lot of workers in those industries were card-carrying members of the Communist party, so it made sense to reward them for their loyalty.
We slowly lost our development edge, fell behind the West in automation, computer technology, semiconductors. The overemphasis on industry led to major ecological problems and pollution, and the emerging ecological initiatives proved to be a fertile ground for opposition. In 1989, the regime fell, and we were left with a huge, absolutely bloated, but mostly obsolete coal and steel industry that could not compete anymore. And its subsequent collapse was a source of significant societal disruption.
I saw the collapse of that industry first hand, growing up in a coal and steel city (Ostrava; just take Google Maps and look at the enormous chunks of industrial structures located literally inside the city, with residential buildings right next to the factories).
Now China does not seem to fall behind yet, they also allow a lot more capitalism than Communist Czechoslovakia did (in our country, even a private café was a rare sight; the regime was so ideologically pure that it purged even most self-employed people from independence into formal jobs).
But I can see a similar "it-must-stay-the-same-itis" in their proclamations that the country must never deindustrialize. Never is a bad word in mortal's mouths. If they fixate on industry at the cost of all other developments, they may go down the same route as Czechoslovakia eventually.
My dad worked in Tesla Elektroakustika Bratislava manufacturing electronics and often recounted that a member of Politbyro said "Prečo vyrábate polovodiče a nie vodiče?" "Why do you make semiconductors instead of conductors?"
There isn't such kind of boneheaded inertia in China. Yet.
Yeah, President Novotný is said to have declared that semiconductors are a fad and Czechoslovakia will wait to develop "toticonductors" ("celovodiče").
That is price paid for a system that kept a totally dumb person at the head of the country for 12 years. And when we got rid of him, the Soviets arrived in their tanks to correct our heresy (1968).
As for China - TBH we do not yet know what happens within China. The flow of information is fairly restricted. A lot more of the economy is outside direct control of the Party, and those parts of the economy are likely to be fairly functional; they have to compete on the international market, after all. But within the Central Commmittee, I wouldn't be surprised if boneheadedness wasn't a significant problem. Many politicians are of the "dumb, but cunning" sort, even in the West.
But I can see a similar "it-must-stay-the-same-itis" in their proclamations that the country must never deindustrialize.
There's some of that. There's an official push in China towards self-sufficiency, and eliminating reliance on imports. The US used to have such a policy during the Cold War.
The coal and steel fixation created the European Union, which was originally "the European Coal and Steel Community". Britain grew to be a world power through coal and steel. As those declined in importance, they were taken over by the Government, under what was derisively called "lemon socialism". There was British Steel, British Coal, British Rail... All the old labor-intensive plants.
China has problems with inefficient state-owned businesses, which tend to be jobs programs. They're mostly owned by provincial and municipal governments, not the national government. Lots of steel mills and coal mines, inevitably. But since they make steel for export, they can't be too inefficient.
Now the thing about five year plans was that they worked rather well at the beginning, so approximately until 1960. Back then, the economic power of a country was measured by its heavy industry, and in a post-WWII world where there was war damage to be fixed, an entire eastern part of the country (Slovakia) to be modernized from its earlier rural state, and new housing stock to be built, concentration of our five year plans on heavy industry made sense.
But slowly the world development started to diverge from the coal-and-steel line. And our central planners didn't take notice, or rather underestimated the significance of that development. They had, after all, a lot of success earlier with coal and steel, so they continued to plan for more coal and steel. Also, a lot of workers in those industries were card-carrying members of the Communist party, so it made sense to reward them for their loyalty.
We slowly lost our development edge, fell behind the West in automation, computer technology, semiconductors. The overemphasis on industry led to major ecological problems and pollution, and the emerging ecological initiatives proved to be a fertile ground for opposition. In 1989, the regime fell, and we were left with a huge, absolutely bloated, but mostly obsolete coal and steel industry that could not compete anymore. And its subsequent collapse was a source of significant societal disruption.
I saw the collapse of that industry first hand, growing up in a coal and steel city (Ostrava; just take Google Maps and look at the enormous chunks of industrial structures located literally inside the city, with residential buildings right next to the factories).
Now China does not seem to fall behind yet, they also allow a lot more capitalism than Communist Czechoslovakia did (in our country, even a private café was a rare sight; the regime was so ideologically pure that it purged even most self-employed people from independence into formal jobs).
But I can see a similar "it-must-stay-the-same-itis" in their proclamations that the country must never deindustrialize. Never is a bad word in mortal's mouths. If they fixate on industry at the cost of all other developments, they may go down the same route as Czechoslovakia eventually.