Why China's Five-Year Plan matters for America

As President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington this week for a state visit running September 23 to 25, the commentary in Western countries will follow a familiar script: strategic rivalry, tariff friction, technological decoupling, etc.

But while the cameras focus on the ceremony, the more consequential story is already unfolding: China's 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted in March and now in its first year of implementation, is quietly reshaping the terms on which the world's second-largest economy will grow, consume, and trade through 2030.