The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

by Kevin Rudd

So what does the NDC actually mean for Chinese economic policy? Although it first appeared in 2015 (when it was brought up by Xi at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Central Committee), for the next few years, the term New Development Concept was of secondary significance in the party’s official discourse, left vague enough to encapsulate whatever Xi’s take on economic policy happened to be at the time. Its intended significance was then underscored by Xi’s decision to have it formally incorporated into the Chinese state constitution in March 2018. Over the years that followed, Xi gradually imbued the concept with more meaning, and by 2020, the NDC came to embody the confluence of three key priorities: nationalist self-reliance, his protectionist concept of a dual-circulation economy, and his new redistributive doctrine of common prosperity.

XJP NDC