During the preparatory period for China’s next five-year plan, President Xi Jinping stressed the country needed to stick to its strategy of “focusing on doing its own work” and seizing the initiative amid an uncertain external environment, according to a report by the state-run news agency Xinhua.

The comments, which Xi originally made during a symposium in August, were published on Friday, the day after the conclusion of thefourth plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, where China’s leaders unveiled their policy priorities for the rest of the decade.

During the symposium, Xi called on the country to “closely monitor and accurately assess the international situation, actively recognise, respond to and pursue changes, and firmly hold the strategic initiative”, Xinhua reported.

While acknowledging rising global uncertainty, he said the country must stay focused on its own mission “regardless of how the external environment changes”.

Xi’s remarks were made at a meeting for figures outside China’s ruling Communist Party to provide input for the drafting of the country’s 15th five-year plan, which was held at Zhongnanhai, the central leadership compound in Beijing, according to Xinhua.

The symposium was part of an effort to gather suggestions from other parties and society as a whole, making the plan a result of “promoting democracy, pooling wisdom, and building consensus”, Jiang Jinquan, head of the Central Policy Research Office, told the press on Friday.

The new five-year plan, which covers 2026 to 2030, will be crucial as the world’s second-largest economy navigates intensifying external challenges – includingthe US-China trade war and a global tech race – while contending with a series of domestic headwinds, from weak demand to a rapidly ageing population.