China has released an action plan to build a Digital China by 2025. The plan focuses on eight major areas, including innovation in systems and mechanisms, cultivation of local brands, infrastructure enhancement, cultivation of the data industry, nurturing of digital talent, optimization of the digital development environment, and empowerment of digital technology. The plan aims to establish a unified approach to digital development and improve coordination between central and local governments.
A comprehensive management system for data will be created, with an emphasis on enhancing local data management functions. The plan also aims to strengthen the digital economy by developing distinctive and competitive digital products and industries. Through technological innovation, functional upgrades, and brand-building efforts, competitiveness in the data sector will be enhanced, and significant industry clusters will be created.
A major focus is on the application of AI and developing high-quality AI datasets. The plan outlines ways to advance intelligent manufacturing and connected technologies, such as smart electric vehicles, AI-enabled smartphones and computers, and intelligent robotics. Another crucial element is the optimization of the Internet of Things and the industrial Internet.
China aims to balance the demand for computational power across different regions and improve the efficient allocation of computing resources through the “East Data, West Computing” initiative. This initiative is a mega project to establish eight national computing hubs and 10 national data center clusters, transmitting more computing resources from the eastern regions to the less developed western areas. The action plan also emphasizes the creation of high-quality industry datasets, particularly in key sectors like transportation, healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and agriculture.
Public data resources will be leveraged more effectively, with a focus on unified management and integrated application of public data. Measures have been outlined to foster digital talent through industry-education collaboration and digital skills competitions. The business environment will be improved to attract more high-quality data enterprises and projects, establishing pathways for the mobility of top-tier digital professionals.
The plan targets significant progress by 2025, with key indicators including the digital economy’s core industries contributing over 10 percent to the national GDP, a computing power capacity exceeding 300 EFLOPS, and major advances in government digitalization, cultural digitalization, and public service integration.
China’s digital transformation plan
China is also formulating policy documents to cultivate a national integrated data market, aiming to fully unlock the value of its vast data resources.
Efforts will focus on enhancing the development and utilization of public data and encouraging enterprises to leverage data for cost reduction and operational efficiency improvements. The National Data Administration is compiling a guideline on the application scenarios of data elements to promote the use of data as a production factor in various fields and tap its potential. A three-year action plan has been issued to expand data application in 12 key sectors, including manufacturing, modern agriculture, logistics, and financial services.
Luan Jie, deputy head of the policy and planning department at the NDA, noted that nearly 500 digital tech companies have been established by centrally administered State-owned enterprises. About 66 percent of leading enterprises in various industries have purchased data, indicating extensive social participation that has laid a solid foundation for leveraging data value. China’s total data output reached 41.06 zettabytes last year, a 25 percent year-on-year increase, with the added value of core digital economy industries accounting for about 10 percent of GDP, according to the NDA.
Experts emphasize the need to boost data circulation and transactions, explore data pricing mechanisms, ensure data security, and strengthen privacy protection. Accelerating the development of a national integrated data market and expanding data applications across various sectors are essential for driving industrial transformation, advancing the digital economy, and leveraging data to foster new growth drivers. China has also released an implementation plan for the digital transformation of the electronic information manufacturing industry, with a goal for major enterprises to achieve a numerical control rate of over 85 percent in key production processes by 2027.
The plan highlights the electronic information manufacturing industry as a strategic, fundamental, and pioneering sector of the national economy. With its large scale, extensive industrial chains, and broad coverage, the industry plays a crucial role in integrating the real and digital economies, advancing new industrialization, and fostering new quality productive forces. By 2027, new information infrastructure will be developed to support the digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of the electronic information manufacturing industry.
This infrastructure will incorporate advanced computing and artificial intelligence deeply integrated into industry development. By 2030, a robust data infrastructure system for the industry is expected to be in place, along with a comprehensive industrial database. Efforts will focus on promoting digital transformation across the entire industrial chain and accelerating the trial and adoption of innovative products such as smart wearable devices and intelligent robots, according to the plan.
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