China's Communist Party elite have vowed to build a modern industrial system and make more efforts to achieve technology self-reliance, moves it sees as key to bolstering its position in its intensifying rivalry with the United States.

The announcement by state media came in a communique after a four-day closed door meeting, known as a plenum, outlining China's priorities in its next five-year development plan, which will only be released in full at a parliamentary meeting in March next year.

As expected, the Party's Central Committee promised more efforts to expand domestic demand and improve people's livelihoods - long-standing goals that in recent years have been little more than an afterthought as China prioritised manufacturing and investment.

The Chinese economy's over-reliance on

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