The digital economy will enable the Chinese nation to once again become the center of the world economy… 数字经济将会让中华民族再次成为世界经济的中心…
New Ideas Lead a New Journey: Digital China Paints a New Picture of High Quality Development, CCTV-13, June 12, 2024 【新思想引领新征程】数字中国绘就高质量发展新图景
The Chinese Communist Party views digitalized (data-driven) development of the economy as not merely a technology policy, but a historic strategic opening that will reshape global competitiveness and advance National Rejuvenation.
On June 12, 2024, China Central Television (CCTV) aired a report summarizing one of the Party’s core messages behind the Digital China strategy, referred to in the segment by its full formal title, “Building Digital China.” In the report, CCTV stated that building a data-driven digital economy, one of Digital China’s five “ways,” would enable China “to once again become the center of the world economy.”
This line was aimed at the Chinese public, underscoring the Party’s deep belief that digitalized (data-driven) development is not merely a technology policy, but a historic strategic opening that will reshape global competitiveness and advance National Rejuvenation. For China, success will mean both the end of domestic inequality and reclaiming the forefront of global economic transformation.
But there is one big problem: we were not supposed to see this.
More precisely, we were not supposed to see this part of the report.
A business website in China (which I will not link to) posted a short clip on November 13, 2025 taken from a longer CCTV broadcast originally aired in June 2024. This site routinely posts videos relevant to its clientele, and appears simply to have found this clip online.
However, if you watch the full official CCTV broadcast (linked above), the clip containing the line “the digital economy will enable the Chinese nation to once again become the center of the world economy” is missing. It was edited out.
I do not know with certainty why CCTV removed it. But there is a likely reason.
The “atomic bomb and digital economy” narrative
Around the same time the full broadcast aired in 2024, a number of posts on Chinese social media (non-official accounts claiming to be private users) began circulating a line that merged historical pride with digital ambition:
“The atomic bomb enabled the Chinese people to stand up, and the digital economy will enable the Chinese nation to once again become the center of the world economy. 原子弹是让中国人站起来，而数字经济将会让中华民族再次成为世界经济的中心.”
The origin of this line is unclear. But its spread, and its striking similarity to the wording in the CCTV clip, likely made the phrase politically sensitive. CCTV may have judged it unwise to allow even the latter half of the line to appear in its official broadcast.
What we might have learned though is how the Party truly views the concept of Digital Economy.
Below is the archived clip and transcript of the segment that was removed.
Archived Video
Video Transcript and Translation
We must accelerate Building Digital China, build a digital economy with data as the key element, and promote the fused development of the real economy and the digital economy. We must clearly explain to everyone the significance of developing the digital economy. The digital economy will enable the Chinese nation to once again become the center of the world economy, and in the future, 1.4 billion people will be able to completely eliminate the gap between rich and poor, thus ushering in a new era of unprecedented opportunity.
要加快建设数字中国，构建以数据为关键要素的数字经济，推动实体经济和数字经济融合发展。明确告诉大家国家搞数字经济的意义。数字经济将会让中华民族再次成为世界经济的中心，未来十四亿人也能够彻底消除贫富差距，由此开启一个百年不遇的时代新风口。