China Begins 2026 with Assertive National Vision as Xi Jinping Sets Tone for Unified Prosperity and Global Governance Reform

In a nationally broadcast New Year’s Eve address, Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the conclusion of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the commencement of the next phase of national development with a sweeping review of China’s recent trajectory and an assertive projection of its ambitions for 2026 and beyond. 

Xi’s message, delivered via China Media Group and online platforms, reiterated the central pillars of Communist Party leadership while spotlighting China’s economic expansion, innovation in science and technology, cultural revitalization, and a continued push for reunification and sovereignty.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s 2026 New Year Message. Via: Mao Ning

According to official estimates, China’s economic output in 2025 is expected to surpass RMB 140 trillion, marking a significant milestone in national income. While global growth has remained uneven, Beijing's focus on endogenous development has underscored its shift from scale to quality. 

Xi credited this performance to the resilience and industriousness of Chinese citizens and positioned the national economy as entering a phase of “new quality productive forces” — a recurring term in recent policy discourse that refers to upgrading industrial capacity via indigenous innovation.

A central highlight of 2025 was China’s advancement in artificial intelligence and semiconductor research, two sectors in which it faces persistent global competition and strategic restrictions. 

Multiple AI foundation models debuted domestically, and progress in chip design and localized manufacturing was emphasized as a strategic response to export controls and supply chain vulnerabilities. These initiatives are aimed at reducing technological dependence and asserting China’s place in future-facing sectors.

In parallel with technological gains, cultural confidence emerged as a recurring motif. The Chinese state has increasingly turned to heritage, aesthetics, and storytelling to project soft power internally and abroad. 

Public enthusiasm for cultural relics, classical motifs like Nezha and Wukong, and the booming popularity of “super league” local football competitions and winter sports contributed to the state’s effort to frame a uniquely Chinese path to modernization—one that merges tradition with technology and economic growth with cultural continuity.

The message also contained a strong current of nationalism, including references to the 80th anniversary of China’s victory in the Anti-Japanese War, and the institutionalization of “Taiwan Recovery Day,” a symbolic gesture in the context of Beijing’s long-standing position on cross-strait reunification. Xi called the reunification of Taiwan “a trend of the times” and “unstoppable,” reaffirming his administration’s hardline posture as the island prepares for a pivotal election cycle in early 2026.

Emphasizing China’s role in shaping global systems, Xi reaffirmed the country’s leadership in initiatives like the Global Security Initiative and Global Governance Initiative, both part of a broader narrative asserting that the current international order is outdated and unbalanced. 

He called for a more “just and equitable” global governance structure, underscoring China's intention to shape multilateral rules and standards, particularly in technology, climate action, and digital trade.

2025 also saw developments in space exploration and military modernization. The Tianwen-2 asteroid probe was launched, and China’s first aircraft carrier equipped with an electromagnetic catapult system entered into service—both events illustrative of its strategic ambitions across space and maritime domains. 

Domestically, the hydropower project on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River, a critical and politically sensitive waterway originating in Tibet, commenced construction, reflecting China’s focus on long-term resource security.

Xi’s speech included personal recollections from visits to Xizang (Tibet) and Xinjiang, where he highlighted ethnic unity using metaphors of cohesion and fraternity. 

These references arrive amid continued international scrutiny over China’s policies in those regions. Domestically, however, the government’s messaging frames these visits as demonstrations of national integration and socio-economic upliftment.

From a governance perspective, Xi emphasized continued anti-corruption efforts under the banner of the Communist Party’s “self-revolution,” with recent campaigns targeting both lower-level functionaries and high-ranking officials. 

The central Party leadership’s discipline-focused reforms, along with structural adjustments in party and state institutions, are projected as essential to ensuring long-term stability.

The year 2026 marks the launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan, with Xi calling for “bold strides” and detailed planning in areas such as high-quality development, reform, innovation, and rural revitalization. 

The message concluded with poetic imagery and rhetorical appeals to unity, perseverance, and national rejuvenation—a vocabulary that aligns with the broader narrative arc of the "Chinese Dream" and the centenary goals of 2049.

Xi’s New Year message presents China as a designer of alternative global frameworks, increasingly defined by sovereignty, national resilience, and technological autonomy.