With its huge population, Communist Party government and centralized planning, the People’s Republic of China can seem like a daunting place to do business. Still, the world’s second-largest economy, after the United States, offers at least one handy roadmap: its famed five-year plans. Since the first one in 1953, these plans have provided a way for international trading partners to figure out where the country of 1.33 billion people is headed—or where it wants to head, at least.

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