China’s “Two Sessions”: Leveraging Education for Innovation and High-Quality Growth in 2025

The “Two Sessions” (两会 Liǎng Huì), China’s annual concurrent high-level political gatherings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), recently concluded in Beijing. Held from March 4 to 11, the sessions provided a platform for legislative and political advisory deliberations, shaping China’s policy direction for 2025. Key highlights included Premier Li Qiang’s 2025 “Government Work Report” (GWR) and President Xi Jinping’s meeting with provincial government officials on the sidelines of the sessions.

One of the most significant takeaways for China watchers is the government’s GDP growth target of around 5% in 2025, consistent with last year’s goal. Other key economic targets include the creation of over 12 million new jobs, a 5.5% urban unemployment rate, around 4% fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio, and about 2% CPI, all of which are quite ambitious considering China’s real estate slump, weak consumer confidence, and rising U.S. tariffs and other geopolitical tensions.

GWR’s Education Priorities for 2025

As part of the government’s drive to enhance the quality and sustainability of economic development that is people-centred, 10 major economic and social development tasks were proposed, including boosting domestic consumption, rural revitalization, carbon reduction, and new quality productive forces. Among them, the third task specifically focuses on education – “Fully implementing the strategy of invigorating China through science and education and boosting the overall performance of China’s innovation system.” This highlights the critical role of education and human capital cultivation in China’s long-term growth and modernization efforts, a theme prominently captured in the country’s respective 12th, 13th, and 14th Five-Year Plans (FYPs).

In particular, China aims to boost education vis-à-vis three key factors underpinning innovation-driven development. Firstly, the government plans to build a high-quality education system. This involves developing a three-year plan to strengthen its education system and integrate reforms in elementary to tertiary education curricula. The government also plans to promote free preschool education piecemeal, advance integrated development of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and industry-schools collaboration, refine mechanisms for higher education discipline modification and talent training models, promote access to mental and physical health education, and enhance educators’ professional integrity.

Secondly, China intends to expand self-reliance and strength in science and technology by intensifying breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields and R&D advancements in frontier and disruptive technologies, and facilitating institutional support for enterprises’ participation in science and technology-related national decision-making processes. This also involves prioritising reforming research institutes, exploring novel research organisational models, raising competition-based and stable central government research funds, upgrading regulations over venture capital funds, and protecting the intellectual property rights of researchers and innovators.

Lastly, the GWR details the Chinese government’s aim to comprehensively boost the overall calibre of talents with expertise of strategic importance to the country by nurturing top-tier innovators, encouraging industry-university-research institutes joint training and personnel exchanges, boosting support mechanisms for foreign talents, and offering better services for foreign professionals. This priority also encompasses addressing concerns over coveting honorary titles in the scientific and educational sectors and designing a personnel assessment system founded on innovative competency, performance, outcomes, and contributions.

Local Participation, Private Sector Support, and Competition in Key Industries

This attention to the role of education was also highlighted during President Xi’s meeting with officials from China’s eastern Jiangsu Province during the sidelines of the “Two Sessions,” where private sector innovation and cross-regional integration were discussed. With China’s science budget reaching CN¥398 billion (US$54 billion), a 10% rise for the second consecutive year, Xi stressed the government’s plan to promote advancements in robotics and AI, and compete in science and technology, reaffirming that “scientific and technological innovation, along with industrial innovation, is key to driving productivity.” Additionally, in an endeavour to allay concerns about China’s economic challenges during a media address, Liu Jieyi, the CPPCC’s spokesman, pointed to progress in emerging industries and the indispensability of human capital. Liu emphasized that “technological innovation relies on talent, and talent development depends on education,” underscoring the government’s commitment to strengthening education for high-quality development spurred by technological innovation.

Amid intensifying China-U.S. tech manufacturing competition for dominance in AI, robotics, electronic vehicles, and semi-conductor chips, Chinese provinces are ramping up efforts to develop high-tech hubs and innovation incubators, with the hopes of unleashing the next tech disruptor like DeepSeek’s V3 AI model. In this vein, it may be fair to argue that a higher GDP growth rate is no longer the primary pointer for regional progress since China’s principal economic narrative now focuses on high-quality development driven by advanced technology and manufacturing.

Early Signs of Actions Taken to Meet the National Priorities

With the GWR adopting the terminology of “high-quality development” – aligning with China’s political leadership’s shift from high-speed growth – its education priorities integrate elements of coherence and gradualism that consider varied interests. Nevertheless, the real test of China’s capability will be implementing and translating the targets into tangible human capital gains and innovations in science and technology.

The presence of domestic short-term structural and fiscal challenges raises some pessimism, where it is believed the central government may be unwilling to offer immediate support and local governments’ revenue generation drive to address their debt stress may encumber the private sector.

However, across China, there are early signs from various stakeholders attempting to align their efforts to meet the central government’s education and innovation priorities. Chinese universities are actively contributing by developing specialised courses and expanding admission numbers for strategic disciplines, including AI, integrated circuits, biomedicine, and new energy.

For instance, Peking University announced plans to raise its undergraduate enrolment by 150 spots in 2025 to focus on areas of national strategic importance, fundamental disciplines, and emerging frontier fields. This commitment aligns with the university’s plan to build a 683,500 square-meter AI- and engineering-focused campus in Changping district, close to Beijing’s Zhongguangcun hi-tech cluster known as China’s Silicon Valley. Similarly, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University stated plans to boost undergraduate admissions by 150, 100, and 150 seats, respectively. Also, Zheng Shanjie, head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), noted China’s plan to expand admissions into “Double First Class” universities to 20,000, up from 16,000 in 2024.

These initiatives support China’s broader push for technological leadership and knowledge formation and production, epitomized in its position as the world’s largest patent filer and home to the second-largest number of technology unicorns – 369, as of April 2024, with an average value of US$3.8 billion.

What Do the Education Priorities Mean for Africa?

Although the “Two Sessions” are primarily a China affair, their outcomes have far-reaching implications that transcend Chinese domestic politics, influencing global economic trends and international relations. Viewed through the lens of Afro-Sino relations, the GWR education-related priorities carry particular significance for China’s soft power appeal and Africa’s human resource development (HRD) needs. 

Across Africa, quality education is increasingly becoming a key strand of various national government directives. From Ghana’s National Education Forum to Nigeria’s Education for Renewed Hope and Tanzania’s Education Sector Development Plan, strategies are being developed on the continent to transform education systems for a sustainable future. Given the close bilateral and multilateral education development cooperation between China and African countries, including the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), improvements in China’s education system in 2025 could feed into the broader BRI Education Action Plan and FOCAC education cooperation pledges. Going forward, a joint Africa-China initiative on quality education could be a natural next step, focusing on improved people-to-people exchanges, workforce preparation, technical training, capacity building, and scholarships. With aligned interests and a shared commitment to deepening cooperation, such an initiative would complement ongoing efforts leading up to future FOCAC and BRI summits and Action Plans.

Furthermore, China’s plan of advancing the integrated development of TVET, higher education,and industry-schools collaboration can influence HRD in Africa by enhancing the skills of young talents, professionals, or government personnel enrolled in China-backed degree and training programs in key sectors like infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and digital and green technologies. However, given that China’s education policies stem from competing agendas and political influences across multiple government bureaucratic levels, there exists the fear of inconsistency and poor coordination that can obfuscate the line between launching human capital programs for Africa and prioritising China’s soft power and commercial interests.

Furthermore, announcements to enlarge enrolment spots across several Chinese universities could create more opportunities for top students from Africa to access quality education in strategic fields that can be applied to their national economic contexts. Nonetheless, it is yet to be seen if and what proportion of the additional admission spots will be available to international students.

Overall, China’s education priorities during the 2025 “Two Sessions” highlight the critical role of knowledge-for-development that positions education and talent cultivation as fundamental to the country’s technological innovation and socioeconomic advancement. Attaining the national goals will depend on the extent to which local governments can efficiently and effectively implement the central government’s directives, China’s pace at handling its internal structural challenges, and geopolitical volatility.