Recently, the State Council outlined a modern comprehensive transportation system during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period in a circular.

According to the circular, China will follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and fully implement the guiding principles of the 19th National Congress of the CPC and the plenary sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee. Upholding people-centered development, China will apply the new development philosophy and create a new framework of development. It will pursue development with a focus on quality improvement, promote supply-side structural reforms as the main task, and make reforms and innovation the primary driving force in the endeavor to meet the fundamental goal of satisfying the people’s growing needs for a better life. With the goal of accelerating the construction of a country with great transport strength, China will seek development and ensure security in a coordinated manner, improve the structurally optimized and integrated facility network, expand diversified and high-quality service supply, foster innovative and efficient development momentum, and strengthen the eco-friendly, safe, open, and cooperative development mode. In this way, a modern comprehensive transportation system will be constructed to provide strategic support for building a modern socialist country in all respects. Meanwhile, the circular clarifies such basic principles as taking the lead in serving the overall interests of the country, systematic advancement and seamless integration, deepening innovation-driven reform, and green transition and safe development.

According to the circular, by 2025, China will have generally realized integrated transportation development, achieved breakthroughs in pursuing intelligent and green transportation, and made prominent improvements in overall capability, service quality and efficiency of the transportation sector. By that time, China will have made a further step on its road to build a world-class transportation system. By the year 2035, a convenient, economical, efficient, reliable, green, and advanced modern high-quality national comprehensive transportation network will be basically completed. The National 1-2-3 Travel Circle (one-hour commute time in cities, two hours’ travel time within city clusters and three hours to travel between major domestic cities) and the Global 1-2-3 Logistics Circle (one-day delivery to destinations within China, two-day delivery to neighboring countries, and three-day delivery to major global cities) will take initial shape, basically making China a country with a strong transportation network.

Nine major tasks are clarified in the circular. The first is to build a high-quality comprehensive transportation network and refine the blueprint of transportation for a beautiful China. The second is to enhance the capacity of transportation for supporting major strategies and promote the coordinated development of urban and rural areas and different regions through differentiated approaches. The third is to strengthen connectivity and integration, and promote the modernization of transportation in urban clusters and metropolitan areas. The fourth is to expand the supply of high-quality transportation services and promote the diversified and high-quality development of transportation services. The fifth is to follow the innovation-driven development strategy and promote in-depth and accelerated application of smart technologies. The sixth is to meet the requirement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality and fully promote green and low-carbon transition. The seventh is to consolidate the foundations for secure development and improve the capacity of emergency response. The eighth is to contribute to and integrate into the new pattern of development and advance high-level opening-up and cooperation. The ninth is to focus on the deep-seated contradictions that hold back high-quality development and modernize China’s governance capacity.

Besides, the circular proposes five supporting measures. The first is to ensure that the Party fulfills its core role of providing overarching leadership and coordinating efforts on all fronts, and strengthen the Party’s leadership in all fields, aspects, and stages of the development of transportation. The second is to improve department synergies and coordination across government levels to ensure the effective implementation of planning. The third is to orderly promote pilot and demonstrations projects for building a country with great transport strength and increase support for them. The fourth is to improve the mechanism for coordinating major projects across departments and regions, and strengthen the supply of production factors for key projects. The fifth is to do a good job in the evaluation and supervision of planning to ensure the effective implementation.