The industrial ecosystem supporting China’s shipbuilding digitalization is not a narrow industrial upgrade. It is a strategic national project supporting both economic competitiveness and defense modernization.
China’s shipbuilding industry has launched a major initiative to digitally transform its entire manufacturing process from ship design to ship delivery, according to a newly released 116-page document from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) titled the Reference Guide on the Fused Application of the Industrial Internet in the Shipbuilding Industry (archived copy). The Chinese industrial ecosystem being formed to support shipbuilding digitalization is not a narrow industrial upgrade. It is a strategic national project supporting both economic competitiveness and defense modernization.
Beijing began working to improve military-civil fusion in its science and technology systems (military and civil) through the Industrial Internet in April 2022. This shipbuilding fused digitalization plan represents the first public announcement of full implementation of the goal in a defense industry sector, and represents a historic milestone in the Digital China strategy.
The new MIIT guide lays out a detailed roadmap for integrating the Industrial Internet across the entire shipbuilding industrial chain, covering both military and civilian shipbuilding. Since 2022, the digital transformation of heavy industry through the Industrial Internet has been a core element of China’s national Digital China strategy. In this new phase, the shipbuilding and petrochemical industries are being targeted for comprehensive industrial digitalization.
Digital shipbuilding as a national priority
The plan’s strategic objective is to establish a modernized shipbuilding system (现代化船舶制造体系), one that leverages massive data collection, high-quality analytics, intelligent decision-making, and supply chain resilience to create an ecosystem that is efficient, secure, and green. This transformation is driven by the fused application of “new generation information technologies like big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence” throughout the supply chain. The focus of the current effort, however, is on the Industrial Internet, seen as essential “to improve collaboration, efficiency and resilience across the shipbuilding supply chain and promoting the digital transformation of the entire industrial chain.”
Why the Industrial Internet matters
The industrial Internet is the infrastructure that supports the digitalized, networkized, and intelligentized development of the shipbuilding industry.
Reference Guide on the Fused Application of the Industrial Internet in the Shipbuilding Industry (工业互联网与船舶行业融合应用参考指南), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Information and Communication Management Bureau, June 5, 2025
The Industrial Internet1 is classified as a Tier Three application model under New Type Infrastructure. It has been a centrally directed priority of the national Digital China strategy since the Fifth Plenum of the 19th Party Congress in October 2020, reflected in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) Action Plan for the Innovative Development of the Industrial Internet in December 2020.
The China Academy of the Industrial Internet describes the Industrial Internet as an industrial ecosystem that “deeply integrates a new generation of information and communication technology with the industrial economy. By comprehensively connecting people, machines, things, and systems, it creates a new manufacturing and services system that spans the entire manufacturing and value chains. From industry to manufacturing, the Industrial Internet enables digitalized, networkized, and intelligentized development.” The Academy also notes that the Industrial Internet is “an important cornerstone of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The “155N” strategy for Digital Shipbuilding
The reference guide outlines a “155N” development strategy for the fused application of the Industrial Internet in the shipbuilding industry. The strategy aims to “comprehensively enhance digitalization across all aspects of shipbuilding including design, production, and management; promote High Quality Development; and build a modernized shipbuilding system with world-leading digital capabilities.”
The four individual components of the “155N” strategy are further broken down as follows:
(1) Focus on “One” Goal: Promote the development of an efficient, secure, and green modernized shipbuilding system by leveraging massive data collection, aggregation, analysis, and mining. Fully harness the value of big data resources, unlock the full potential of data as a key factor of production, and build intelligent, data-driven capabilities for analysis and decision optimization that empower every aspect of a modernized shipbuilding system.
(2) Consolidate the “Five” Foundations: Build the basic capabilities of the Industrial Internet around data, network, labeling, platform, and safety, and provide integrated service capability and support for the digitalized development of the shipbuilding industry.
(3) Strengthen the “Five” Guarantees: Build an organizational, institutional, financial, talent and cultural guarantee system to comprehensively guarantee the orderly and efficient advancement of the digital transformation of the shipbuilding industry.
(4) Form “N” (i.e. unlimited) Large Application Scenarios: Create various intelligentized fused application scenarios in key links such as ship research and development, production, and management. Accelerate model innovation, and draw ultimate value from the Industrial Internet empowering the digital transformation of the shipbuilding industry.
Still early, but moving fast
The reference guide also notes that the fused application of the Industrial Internet in the shipbuilding industry remains in a developmental stage. Current implementation efforts are still exploratory and phased. Future revisions and updated editions of the reference guide will incorporate practical experience and feedback from across the industry. While “some progress” has been made in applying digital technologies, including the Industrial Internet, the guide aims to accelerate deeper fusion and innovation. It focuses on key areas requiring modernization: shipbuilding R&D and design, production efficiency, quality monitoring and traceability, worker safety, energy efficiency and green development, and supply chain efficiency and resilience.
A window into Military-Civil Fusion
The Industrial Internet also provides rare insights into the Military-Civil Fusion dimension of Digital China. While this theme was frequently emphasized in state media and official documents prior to 2016, it has largely faded from public discourse in recent years. Nonetheless, occasional signs remain, such as the establishment of the Special Working Group on the Industrial Internet in April 2022 and, more recently, the shipbuilding digitalization program.
The Reference Guide specifically notes that the entire shipbuilding industrial chain is included in the program: upstream (raw materials and supporting equipment), midstream (shipbuilding), and downstream (ship applications including shipping, national defense industries (国防军工), and marine resource development; as well as related services such as leasing and maintenance.)
Participants: A Full Civilian-Defense Industrial Ecosystem
The industrial ecosystem supporting shipbuilding digitalization is not a narrow industrial upgrade. It is a strategic national project supporting both economic competitiveness and defense modernization.
The lead organizations participating in the shipbuilding digitalization program (and contributors to the Reference Guide) include MIIT elements as well as a broad cross-section of both civilian and defense industry sectors within the shipbuilding industry. These include: MIIT Information and Communication Management Bureau, Industrial Internet Industry Alliance, MIIT China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, Chinese Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, China Classification Society, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), Jiangnan Shipyard, CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry Company, Wuhu Shipyard, CSSC 716 Research Institute, CSSC 11 Research Institute, CSSC Industrial Internet Company, Jiangsu Zhongtian Internet Technology Company, and Zhendui Industry Artificial Intelligence Company.
Footnotes
- While not exhaustive, the following English-language papers, listed chronologically, offer excellent background on the Industrial Internet in China. Notably, Jeff Pao is one of the few writers In English who accurately link the Industrial Internet to the Digital China strategy:
Qiu Ping, “Progress in Developing the Industrial Internet in China,” Qiushi, June 09, 2025
Nicholas Welch, “Manufacturing’s Missing Revolution: Lessons the techno-industrial competition with China,” ChinaTalk, March 03, 2025
Liu Yanyan, “What Is the Industrial Internet?” Huawei Info-Finder, July 01, 2024
Mary Hui, “China bets on industrial AI: Doing so sidesteps its US tech dependence and amplifies its manufacturing might,” a/symmetric, April 26, 2024
John Lee, “China and the Industrial Internet of Things,” Leiden Asia Centre, June 23, 2023
Jeff Pao, “Chinese industries to go digital or die ‘Digital China’ plan emphasizes ‘industrial internet’ in a state-led drive for world-class competitiveness and supply chain supremacy,” Asia Times, March 11, 2023
Matt Sheehan, “Remaking “Made in China”: Beijing’s Industrial Internet Ambitions,” MacroPolo, February 22, 2021 ↩︎