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China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency assessment, June 1983 This is a declassified Central Intelligence Agency research paper on the People’s Republic of China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, covering the period 1981 through 1985. The document was released to the public on the first of January, two thousand eight, and is hosted in the public archive at archive.org. The paper was made available through a Freedom of Information Act request, case number not disclosed, with declassification authority granted by the Director of Central Intelligence. It was originally prepared by the Office of East Asian Analysis and coordinated with the National Intelligence Council. The Chief of the Domestic Policy Branch, Office of East Asian Analysis, was listed as the point of contact for comments and queries. Key Judgments The approval last December of the Sixth Five‑Year Plan, covering 1981‑85, marked a milestone that the Chinese leadership had been working toward since the death of Chairman Mao in 1976. For Beijing, the restoration of an orderly planning process may be more significant than the plan itself. During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, China’s planning apparatus was dismantled, and plans reportedly consisted of little more than targets for a few important commodities. Now the planning bureaucracies have been reestablished and strengthened, and they have produced a plan that Beijing regards as only its second real five‑year plan—along with the First Five‑Year Plan of 1953‑57. Perhaps most important to the top leadership, policy discussions leading up to the plan have been relatively free of ideological cant and have explored a wider range of options. This plan emphasizes factors such as economic efficiency, productivity, and consumer needs, and virtually ignores socialist proprieties. In our judgment, Beijing’s policies have become more realistic, particularly in comparison with earlier years when more traditional Soviet‑style economic ideas or Maoist notions guided economic policies. The Sixth Plan is more comprehensive and methodologically sounder than recent plans, but it still falls far short of being fully comprehensive and internally consistent. The limited capabilities of Chinese planners, the scarcity and uneven quality of basic economic data, and the political and economic complexities of governing one billion people all prevent Beijing from doing much better at present. Because final decisions on many issues have yet to be made, and because of problems with the plan itself, we expect a number of revisions in the plan during 1983‑85. Indeed, the government has referred to the desirability of a “rolling plan,” to which adjustments would be made annually. The “five‑year plan” is really a three‑year plan, 1983‑85, given the late 1982 approval date. Relatively rapid growth in 1981‑82 has put Beijing in a position where many of the 1985 output targets can be met with ease. National income grew at…

Why was this case declassified?

This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. The originating source document is linked on this page so the citation chain is auditable.

Case File · ARCHIVE-930Declassified

Filed AUG 2 · 2026Runtime 3 min

CIA China’s Sixth Five‑year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency

U.S. public record · FOIAUpdated August 2, 2026

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China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency assessment, June 1983 This is a declassified Central Intelligence Agency research paper on the People’s Republic of China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, covering the period 1981 through 1985. org.

Date: AUG 2 · 2026
Release: Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)
Source document: View the primary source document

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What was CIA China’s Sixth Five‑year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency about?: China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency assessment, June 1983 This is a declassified Central Intelligence Agency research paper on the People’s Republic of China’s Sixth Five‑Year Economic Plan, covering the period 1981 through 1985. org.
Why was this case declassified?: This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Storyflo narrates it directly from the public release.

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CIA China’s Sixth Five‑year Economic Plan, 1981‑85 – Central Intelligence Agency

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