At the closing meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing on March 12, lawmakers approved the outline of the 15th Five Year Plan for national economic and social development, the Ecological and Environmental Code, other laws, and Premier Li Qiang's Report on the Work of the Government. According to the China Daily, the Plan clearly states the need to improve living standards, increase consumer spending and combine investment in physical assets with investment in human capital. Investing in people involves focusing on people’s needs for a better life by increasing investment in education, healthcare, elderly care, and other public service sectors.
The Ecological and Environmental Code opens a new chapter for systematic environmental governance. The compilation of the code was initiated in November 2023. The draft legislation underwent three rounds of deliberation by the NPC Standing Committee last year prior to its submission to this year's plenary session. Wang Canfa, Professor of Environmental law at the China University of Political Science and Law, hailed the adoption as a significant event in the country’s advancement of ecological civilization. “Compiling disparate environmental statutes into a comprehensive ecological and environmental code provides considerable advantages over the existing fragmented legislative framework,” Wang said. A whole book is dedicated to green and low-carbon development, which is a global precedent. The Code elevates climate response measures from policy objectives to binding legal requirements.
Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu noted the remarkable achievements that the country has made in pollution control. China saw the average proportion of days with heavy pollution drop by 25% to only 1% from 2021 to 2025, but it was still 3% for some regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
While delivering his report on the work of the NPC, Chairman Zhao Leji, also disclosed that the NPC Standing Committee would amend existing laws this year, including the People’s Bank of China Law and the Banking Supervision and Management Law, in order to improve financial stability and defuse risks. Fu Weigang, President of the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Law, said the financial law was likely to be a comprehensive, overarching framework covering all aspects of finance and turning Beijing’s grand vision on financial development into enforceable rules. “There may be clauses on financial reform, serving the real economy, inclusive finance, green finance, the yuan’s role and anti-corruption,” he said. He also warned that the process could be lengthy since various stakeholders would be involved.
At the twice-a-decade central financial work conference in October 2023, officials first proposed a national strategy to turn China into a global financial superpower, in line with its status as the world’s second-largest economy. In a 2024 speech, President Xi Jinping laid out six targets to become a financial powerhouse: a strong central bank, robust regulations, sound financial institutions, a deep talent pool, leading international financial centers, and the yuan achieving global reserve currency status. Beijing has also warned the country’s bankers against “Wall Street-style” extravagance and greed, while stressing the crucial role of finance in supporting the real economy and technological self-reliance. The total assets of China’s financial institutions reached CNY531.7 trillion in the third quarter of 2025, up 8.7% year-on-year, according to data from the PBOC.
The full text of Premier Li Qiang's Report on the Work of the Government is available here .
