Chinese Ambassador to Botswana Fan Yong Publishes A Signed Article Titled “Opening New Horizons Amid Global Changes: China’s ‘Two Sessions’ Chart a New Blueprint for[...]

On March 27, 2026, H.E. Mr. Fan Yong, Chinese Ambassador to Botswana puts an article titled "Opening New Horizons Amid Global Changes: China's "Two Sessions" Chart a New Blueprint for Development and Global Cooperation" to local newspaper the Botswana Guardian. In the article, Ambassador Fan introduced the main points of China's "Two Sessions" and the 15th Five-Year Plan, and highlighted the new opportunities facing China-Botswana cooperation. The full text is as follows:

From March 4 to 12, 2026, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully convened in Beijing, which is usually known as "Two Sessions". A key task of the 2026 "Two Sessions" is to review the draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, which charts the blueprint for China's development over the next five years. These meetings are critical to China's domestic development and also carry profound implications for the international community, serving as an important window to understand China's development path and governance model.

China's Economy: Advancing Against Headwinds with Strong Momentum

The year 2025 marked the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan period. Amid rapidly evolving global economic and trade conditions, rising unilateralism and protectionism, and fluctuating market expectations, China's economy has proved remarkably resilient, forging ahead against headwinds. GDP grew by 5%, reaching RMB 140.19 trillion (approximately USD 19.5 trillion). GDP per capita reached around RMB 100,000 (approximately USD 14,000). Total imports and exports of goods surpassed RMB 45 trillion, up by 3.8 percent year on year. Imports reached RMB 18.5 trillion (approximately USD 2.6 trillion), making China the world's second-largest import market for 17 consecutive years. Exports totaled RMB 26.99 trillion (approximately USD 3.8 trillion), up by 6.1 percent year on year, accounting for over 14 percent of the global total.

The year 2026 is the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Over the next five years, China will establish a framework centered on three core dimensions: growth, structure, and efficiency, to ensure reasonable economic expansion, effective quality improvement, and sustained efficiency gains. This will accelerate the transition toward high-quality development and lay a solid foundation for doubling GDP per capita from its 2020 level by 2035, reaching the standard of moderately developed countries.

China's Science and Technology: Strengthening Self-Reliance and Driving Innovation

During the recent Spring Festival Gala which marked the beginning of the Year of the Horse, a dance performance fully executed by intelligent robots captivated audiences nationwide, offering a vivid glimpse into China's achievements in artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past year, China has achieved dynamic, innovation-driven, and high-quality development. New quality productive forces grew steadily, and numerous new advances were made in science and technology. China led the way in the research, development, and application of AI, biomedicine, robotics, and quantum technology. New breakthroughs were made in the independent research and development of chips. The Tianwen-2 probe embarked on an interplanetary exploration mission; large-scale application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System was extended across various sectors; construction began on the hydropower project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River; the Fujian, China's first domestically built aircraft carrier equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system, was officially commissioned; and China-made large AI models spearheaded the development of the global open-source AI ecosystem. 

The industrial structure continued to improve. The value added of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing grew by 9.4% and 9.2% respectively, while the output of industrial robots and integrated circuits rose by 28% and 10.9% respectively. New-energy vehicle output exceeded 16 million units, and the number of electric vehicle charging facilities reached 20 million.

In the coming five years, China will move faster to achieve greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and seize the historic opportunities emerging from the latest round of technological revolution and industrial transformation to raise its innovation capacity across the board and provide the scientific and technological underpinning needed for high-quality development. China will tap into the strengths of the new system for mobilizing resources nationwide to make breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields across entire chains, carry out major science and technology projects and strengthen planning for strategic and frontier sectors to bring about more original advances.

China's Diplomacy: Promoting Openness and Cooperation with Steady Progress

We are living in a changing and turbulent world, with rising instability and uncertainty. Protectionism and unilateralism are on the rise, geopolitical conflicts continue to emerge, the Ukraine crisis remains unresolved, and tensions in the Middle East have escalated, ushering the world into a new period of turbulence and transformation. In 2025, China's diplomacy, guided by head-of-state diplomacy, opened new horizons amid changing circumstances and pursued win-win outcomes in the face of challenges. China actively advanced major-country diplomacy, deepened global cooperation, and contributed to shaping the multilateral agenda.

China and Botswana enjoy a long-standing traditional friendship. In 2024, the bilateral relations were elevated to a strategic partnership. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which have continued to deepen on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. On February 14, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, announcing that China will fully implement zero-tariff treatment to 53 African countries having diplomatic relations with China starting from May 1, 2026. At the same time, China will continue to push forward the negotiation and signing of the agreements on economic partnership for shared development, and further expand access for African exports to China by upgrading the "green channel" and other measures. These initiatives will bring tangible benefits to Botswana's beef and citrus exports to China, delivering real gains to the people of Botswana.

China's "Two Sessions" embody the aspirations and wisdom of the Chinese people and serve as an open invitation to the world. China stands ready to share its development achievements with all countries and welcomes partners from across the globe to join its development journey for mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. China is also willing to work with Botswana to foster new highlights of cooperation in emerging fields such as clean energy and digital economy, ensuring that the benefits of cooperation are truly felt by both peoples and jointly ushering in the next golden 50 years of China-Botswana relations.