Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden praised the Chinese Communist Party’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan, a state-controlled economic system created under the auspices of China’s communist government which “fully embodied the Marxist worldview” and called for a socialist “legal system,” “political civilization,” and “villages.”
During one of Biden’s trips to China, he spoke at a U.S.-China Business Roundtable at the Beijing Hotel in August of 2011. While speaking, he insisted he “welcomed” and was “really encouraged” by China’s 12th Five-Year plan:
“We also welcome and are really encouraged by the 12th five-year plan and the reordering of the economy toward a more consumer-based economy.”
What’s more, he insisted the Chinese Communist Party’s economic plan as “in the interests of the United States”:
“I never tell another man or another country what’s in their interest, but it seems to me it’s very much in the interest of the Chinese and the Chinese people, but it’s also in the interest of the United States.”
Five-Year Plans originated in the Soviet Union and are a hallmark of a communist or socialist economy: through the use of quotas, collectivization, and rapid industrialization, the government controls every aspect of the economy and its workers.
In other words, the Chinese Communist Party’s Five-Year plans serve as the regime’s economic blueprint for its attempts to overtake the U.S. as the dominant global economy.
And the 12th iteration, which earned praise from Biden, doubles down on the Chinese Communist Party’s adherence to Marxism and party dominance.
To start, the plan identifies a concept known as “Scientific Development” as the paramount force undergirding the economy, with the plan noting it “determines the overall situation of [the Chinese Communist Party’s] endeavor.”
Scientific Development, however, is defined by former Chinese Communist Party Leader Hu Jintao as “fully embodying the Marxist worldview on and methodology for development” and representing the “collective wisdom of the Communist Party of China and a powerful theoretical weapon for guiding all the work of the Party”:
“The Scientific Outlook on Development was created by integrating Marxism with the reality of contemporary China and with the underlying features of our times, and it fully embodies the Marxist worldview on and methodology for development. […] The Scientific Outlook on Development is the latest achievement in developing the system of theories of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and it is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Communist Party of China and a powerful theoretical weapon for guiding all the work of the Party and country. Together with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development is the theoretical guidance the Party must adhere to for a long time.”
The text of the Five-Year Plan also notes that “to formulate the 12th Five Year Plan, [the Chinese Communist Party] should hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Beyond calling for a socialist economy, the Five-Year Plan calls for “accelerating the construction of socialist new villages,” continuing to build a “socialist legal system,” and “promoting the construction of socialist political civilization.”
The nearly 70-page plan is flooded with praise for socialism, including that “tremendous achievements have been made in various aspects including the construction of socialist economy, socialist politics, socialist culture, and ecological civilization.”
What’s more, the plan outlines the Chinese Communist Party’s drive to effectively replace America’s top position in the global economy with a lofty target Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of seven percent along with advancing in the industry of high-tech development.
