…the new “south-facing, north-linking, east-integrating, and west-merging” pattern of all-around opening and development is taking shape. …“南向、北联、东融、西合”全方位开放发展新格局正在形成。

NDRC Issues 14th Five-Year Implementation Plan for Construction of the Beibu Gulf Urban Cluster: Accelerate Development of the Digital Economy and Rationalize the Layout of New Type Infrastructure, Securities Daily, April 8, 2022

The New Digital Gulf of Tonkin Construction Plan is designed to rationalize, scale, and extend New Type Infrastructure across China’s southwest and along its maritime frontier with ASEAN. Far more than a regional development initiative, it represents a strategic extension of Digital China into the maritime domain.

The updated 14th Five-Year Implementation Plan for the Beibu Gulf Urban Cluster (北部湾城市群建设“十四五”实施方案) introduces one of the most consequential regional digital initiatives in southern China: the Digital Gulf of Tonkin (Digital Beibu Gulf) Construction Plan (数字北部湾建设方案). Jointly developed by the Cyberspace Administration of China, National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the plan is designed to rationalize, scale, and extend New Type Infrastructure (NTI) across China’s southwest and along its maritime frontier with ASEAN.

The Digital Beibu Gulf Plan sits at the intersection of multiple national strategies. It is explicitly intended to create a digital maritime gateway linking southwest China with Southeast Asia, integrating the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt with the Maritime Silk Road. The NDRC characterizes this configuration as a “south-facing, north-linking, east-integrating, and west-merging” (南向、北联、东融、西合) pattern of all-around opening, signaling a coordinated effort to connect inland regions with coastal and ASEAN-facing digital corridors.

Although the term Digital China does not appear in the public NDRC notification, the strategy’s architecture runs through the plan in full. This absence reflects normalization rather than distance: the Digital Beibu Gulf blueprint directly advances Digital China’s core missions, including NTI construction, regional digital integration, industrial digital transformation, and the creation of cross-border digital economic hubs. Emphasized NTI categories include 5G, the Internet of Things, large-scale data centers, a national-level Internet backbone direct connection point in Nanning, and a dedicated international Internet data channel in Hainan, aligning with the Central Economic Work Conference’s call for “in-advance” NTI design and construction.

The plan aligns closely with two core chapters of the Beibu Gulf Implementation Plan itself:
• Section 4, which emphasizes smart, digitally integrated transportation and logistics systems; and
• Chapter 16, which focuses on accelerating digital economy development through computing capacity, data flows, and cross-regional coordination.

A central priority is the digital transformation of the Beibu Gulf’s core industrial base, petrochemicals, steel, and equipment manufacturing, through the national initiative 上云用数赋智 (“cloud migration, data utilization, and intelligence empowerment”). This reflects Digital China’s emphasis on converting industrial data into productive assets and restructuring traditional industrial chains into digitalized, high-value networks.

The plan also highlights several strategic digital platforms with national-level significance:
• Smart Ports and Smart Shipping, reinforcing China’s role in regional digital logistics;
• China–ASEAN Digital Economy Industrial Park (中国—东盟数字经济产业园) deepening cross-border economic, technical, and data cooperation;
• “Blockchain Hainan” Blockchain Pilot Zone (“链上海南”区块链试验区), positioning Hainan as a digital trade and governance hub; and
• Western Guangdong Data Valley (粤西数谷), an emerging big data cluster supporting compute-intensive applications.

Taken together, the Digital Gulf of Tonkin Plan is far more than a regional development initiative. It represents a strategic extension of Digital China into the maritime domain, linking inland and coastal economies and establishing the Beibu Gulf as both a physical and digital hinge between China’s domestic transformation and its external geo-economic ambitions.