When the drafters of the 14th Five-Year Plan for China's economic and social development first sat down to the task two years ago in 2018, the Asian economic giant was beginning to feel the heat from the United States.

That was the year the trade war between the world's two largest economies began in earnest, with the US slapping additional tariffs ranging from 10 per cent to 25 per cent on more than US$250 billion (S$336 billion) worth of Chinese goods that it imported.