China and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, creating a political and economic framework for Soviet loans and technical assistance. This relationship later shaped the First Five-Year Plan’s heavy-industry focus and the use of Soviet planning methods.
China began its First Five-Year Plan period (1953–1957), aiming to industrialize quickly and reorganize the economy along socialist, centrally planned lines. The plan prioritized heavy industry and relied on Soviet expertise, designs, and equipment to build new industrial capacity.
A core part of the plan was a large state-led construction drive for major industrial plants and infrastructure. The program included 156 key projects supported by the Soviet Union, helping China expand steel, coal, power generation, machinery, and chemicals—sectors seen as essential for long-term industrialization.
China adopted the 1954 Constitution, replacing the earlier 1949 “Common Programme” as the main state framework. The new constitutional order supported stronger central institutions, which mattered for running nationwide targets, budgets, and investment priorities during the plan.
To feed a growing urban workforce and fund industrial expansion, the state pushed farmers into agricultural producers’ cooperatives. This shift changed rural production and distribution by increasing collective organization and state influence over grain procurement, while also creating tension between industrial investment and farm resources.
Although plan implementation started in 1953, the First Five-Year Plan was formally adopted on July 30, 1955 (after the plan period was already underway). This codified major investment priorities and confirmed the Soviet-style emphasis on heavy industry as the leading sector.
During the plan, the government reduced private ownership by converting many businesses into state-owned or joint public-private enterprises under strong state direction. By 1956, this “socialist transformation” of commerce and industry had largely eliminated privately owned modern firms as an independent sector.
By the plan’s final years, heavy industry and capital construction expanded rapidly, and many large projects were completed and put into production. At the same time, agriculture received a relatively small share of state investment, contributing to a persistent imbalance between industrial growth and food supply pressures.
In May 1956, the leadership encouraged criticism from intellectuals and the public during the Hundred Flowers Campaign. This political opening overlapped with late-plan debates about policy errors and bureaucratic problems, but it also set the stage for a sharp reversal in 1957.
The 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party met in September 1956, the first such congress since 1949. It assessed achievements and problems in socialist construction and helped define how planning and administration would be managed as the First Five-Year Plan moved toward completion.
In mid-1957, the government shifted from encouraging criticism to punishing “rightists” in the Anti-Rightist Campaign. Large numbers of intellectuals and officials were targeted, which reduced open policy debate and strengthened political controls that also affected how economic planning decisions were made.
The First Five-Year Plan concluded in 1957 with major gains in industrial capacity and the expansion of state control over the economy. The plan’s results reinforced confidence in large-scale mobilization and centralized targets, but the unresolved agriculture–industry imbalance contributed to pressures that shaped the next planning period.
After 1957, China moved toward the Second Five-Year Plan (1958–1962), which soon became intertwined with the Great Leap Forward—a more radical approach to speeding up development. This shift marked a major change from the First Five-Year Plan’s Soviet-style, project-based industrial buildout toward mass campaigns and much higher targets.
China's First Five-Year Plan (1953–1957)