The development of the Digital Economy faces several challenges, including insufficient capacity for innovation in core technologies, low efficiency in the marketized allocation of data elements, limited progress in the digitalized transformation of industry, and frequent security risks. To address these challenges, it is essential to fully leverage digital technologies to empower economic and social development, and to strengthen, enhance, and expand the Digital Economy.
“Digital China Construction Series (Lesson 4 of 13): Strengthen, Optimize, Expand the Digital Economy,” Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025
On April 11, 2025, the Beijing Party Member Education Network released a remarkable 13-lesson educational series on China’s national digital strategy, Digital China. Designed as a foundational introduction, the course targets Party cadre and members and is intended to raise awareness, elevate political understanding, and standardize implementation.
Lesson Four defines the function and scope of the Digital Economy. The lesson also makes its central point unmistakably clear: the Digital Economy serves as the Party’s primary laboratory for data-driven development and innovation.
Primary Laboratory for Data-Driven Development and Innovation
Lesson Four describes the Party’s efforts to position the Digital Economy as the central driver of national innovation, modernization, and competitiveness. This includes developing competitive digital industry clusters, advancing the digital transformation of the real economy, supporting digital and platform enterprises, and strengthening supervision over capital.
These efforts aim to harness digitalization to fuel economic growth, secure a global competitive edge, lead in digital innovation, and achieve strategic industrial breakthroughs. As the most dynamic component of the Five Sphere Integrated Plan, the Digital Economy also serves as the Party’s primary laboratory for data-driven development and innovation. In turn, as evidenced elsewhere, this also enables a new two-way dynamic of digital innovation between the military and civilian sectors.
Platform Economy as a New Economic Form for the Digital Age
Lesson Four specifically highlights that the platform economy is a vital new economic form for the digital age. The Industrial Internet supports building agile global supply chains through smart manufacturing and smart logistics. The Internet of Things is helping expand smart applications in areas like agriculture with intelligent irrigation, intelligent greenhouses, and precision fertilization.
Serious Challenges Remain
Despite these successes, the lesson also highlights that China’s Digital Economy faces serious challenges. Although a global front-runner by a variety of measures, it is still best described as “bigger but not stronger, faster but not better,” a phrase credited to Xi Jinping in January 2022.
A Series Roadmap
If you are new to Digital China, you may want to begin with my overview of the strategy and a shortlist of key concepts that cadre are expected to master. Both will help you navigate the lessons.
Let’s continue the series with Lesson Four:
Each lesson’s web address is linked to its original Chinese-language title. Note: Some of these links may have security certificate issues. For your safety, I’ve also embedded a clean, archived copy of each video in the corresponding post. You can choose which version to view, but I recommend using the archived copy for a safer experience.
“Digital China Construction Series 4/13: Strengthen, Optimize, Expand the Digital Economy” (做强做优做大数字经济), Beijing Party Member Education Network (北京党员教育网), April 11, 2025
Archived Video
Speaker: Beijing Guoheng Zhilin Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. (北京国恒智林文化传播有限公司)
Length: 10:31
Synopsis: Accelerating the development of the Digital Economy is a strategic choice for our country to seize new opportunities in a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is also a strategic plan for our country to build a modernized industrial system and advance High Quality Development of the economy. It is also a key task of our country’s economic work in recent years. Although our country’s Digital Economy development currently ranks first in the world, it is still in a state of “bigger but not stronger, faster but not better”. To cope with various challenges, we must strengthen, optimize, and expand the Digital Economy.
简介：加快发展数字经济是我国把握新一轮科技革命和产业变革新机遇的战略选择，是我国建设现代化产业体系、推动经济高质量发展的战略部署，也是近几年我国经济工作的重点任务。我国数字经济发展目前虽居全球第一梯队，但仍处于“大而不强、快而不优”状态。要应对各种挑战，就必须做强做优做大数字经济。
Terminology shortlist with footnoted definitions: Digital Economy1 (数字经济), modernized industrial system2 (现代化产业体系), High Quality Development3 (高质量发展), new opportunities in a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation4 (新一轮科技革命和产业变革新机遇).
Video Transcript and Translation
Terminology shortlist and other key terms are highlighted in blue.
00:24
Just after the 2023 Spring Festival, major annual projects were launched one after another across the country. In just over a month, new projects had commenced in 17 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Among them, New Type Infrastructure, next-generation electronic information, and intelligent manufacturing appeared frequently, with Digital Economy projects taking the lead. Take Changsha as an example. On January 29th, 340 major projects with a total investment of 195.1 billion yuan were launched simultaneously.
2023年春节刚过，全国各地争相启动年度重大项目。短短一个多月，开工的新项目就遍布17个省市自治区。这其中，新基建、新一代电子信息、智能制造等频繁出现，数字经济项目挑起了大梁。以长沙为例，1月29日集中开工的总投资1,951亿元的340个重大项目中。
0:51
Advanced manufacturing and S&T innovation industry projects account for 62% of the total number of projects and 78% of the estimated annual investment, respectively. According to the Statistical Classification of the Digital Economy and Its Core Industries (2021) by the National Bureau of Statistics, the Digital Economy refers to a series of economic activities in which data resources serve as the key factor of production, modern information networks act as important carriers, and the effective use of information and communication technology drives efficiency improvements and economic structure optimization.
先进制造、科技创新产业项目分别占项目总数和年度预估投资总量的62%、78%。按照国家统计局”数字经济及其核心产业统计分类(2021)”中的定义，数字经济是指以数据资源作为关键生产要素。以现代信息网络作为重要载体，以信息通信技术的有效使用作为效率提升和经济结构优化的重要推动力的一系列经济活动。
01:26
Its industrial scope includes five major categories: digital product manufacturing, digital product services, digital technology applications, digital element driven industries, and industries enhancing efficiency through digitalization. Accelerating the development of the Digital Economy is a strategic choice for our country to seize new opportunities presented by the latest round of S&T revolution and and industrial transformation, a strategic plan for our country to build a modernized industrial system and promote High Quality Development of the economy, and also a key focus of our country’s economic work in recent years.
其产业范围包括数字产品制造业，数字产品服务业，数字技术应用业，数字要素驱动业，数字化效率提升业等五大类。加快发展数字经济，是我国把握新一轮科技革命和产业变革新机遇的战略选择，是我国建设现代化产业体系推动经济高质量发展的战略部署，也是近几年我国经济工作的重点任务。
2:00
The development of our country’s Digital Economy is currently among the global front-runners. It has the world’s largest and most advanced mobile communication network, and ranks second globally in the scale of core industries, total scale of computing power, data resource output, and level of internet development. According to data, since 2012, our country’s Digital Economy has grown at an average annual rate of 15.9%, significantly outpacing the average growth rate of GDP over the same period.
我国数字经济发展目前处于全球第一梯队，移动通信网络全球规模最大且技术领先，核心产业规模，算力总规模，数据资源产量，互联网发展水平等均居全球第二。数据显示，2012年以来，我国数字经济年均增速高达15.9%，显著高于同期国内生产总值平均增速。
02:29
From 2012 to 2021, the scale of our country’s Digital Economy grew from 11 trillion yuan to over 45 trillion yuan. Its share of GDP rose from 21.6% to 39.8%. However, as General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, compared with the digital economies of other major powers and great powers in the world, our country’s Digital Economy is bigger but not stronger, faster but not better.
从2012年至2021年，我国数字经济规模从11万亿元增长到超45万亿元。数字经济占国内生产总值比重由21.6%提升至39.8%。但正如习近平总书记所指出的，同世界数字经济大国、强国相比，我国数字经济大而不强、快而不优。
02:58
The development of the Digital Economy faces several challenges, including insufficient capacity for innovation in core technologies, low efficiency in the marketized allocation of data elements, limited progress in the digitalized transformation of industry, and frequent security risks. To address these challenges, it is essential to fully leverage digital technologies to empower economic and social development, and to strengthen, enhance, and expand the Digital Economy.
数字经济发展面临核心技术创新能力不足、数据要素市场化配置效率不高、产业数字化转型效果不明显、数字经济安全风险频发等挑战。要应对各种挑战，就要以数字技术全面赋能经济社会发展，做强、做优、做大数字经济。
03:22
First, foster and expand core industries of the Digital Economy to build globally competitive digital industry clusters. The report of the 20th National Party Congress emphasized that High Quality Development is the top priority in comprehensively building a Modernized Socialist Country. Accelerating the development of the Digital Economy is key. It is necessary to promote deep fusion between the Digital Economy and the real economy and to build globally competitive digital industry clusters. High Quality Development of the Digital Economy must be driven by its core industries. Core industries of the Digital Economy refer to those that provide digital technologies, products, services, infrastructure, and solutions that support industrial digitalized development.
一、培育壮大数字经济核心产业，打造具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群。党的二十大报告提出，高质量发展是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的首要任务。要加快发展数字经济。促进数字经济和实体经济深度融合，打造具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群。数字经济的高质量发展要靠核心产业来引领。数字经济核心产业是指为产业数字化发展提供数字技术、产品、服务、基础设施和解决方案。
04:07
This also includes various economic activities that rely entirely on digital technologies and data elements, such as digital product manufacturing, digital product services, and digital technology application industries, as well as industries driven by digital elements. To foster and expand the core industries of the Digital Economy, the main focus should be on innovative breakthroughs in digital technology and the expansion of applications, and accelerating research on key and core technologies.
以及完全依赖于数字技术、数据要素的各类经济活动，包括数字产品制造业、数字产品服务业、数字技术应用业。数字要素驱动也。培育壮大数字经济核心产业，要以数字技术创新突破和应用拓展为主攻方向，加快关键核心技术攻关。
04:32
Actively cultivate new forms and new models, and strive to achieve High Quality Development. With the continued rapid growth of the Digital Economy, a number of internationally competitive digital industry highlands, agglomerations, and clusters are gradually taking shape: such as the intelligent voice industry in Hefei, the digital security industry in Hangzhou, and the Internet of Things industry in Wuxi.
积极培育新业态、新模式，努力实现高质量发展。随着数字经济的持续快速发展，一批具有国际竞争力的数字产业高地、数字产业集聚区和数字产业集群逐渐形成。如合肥的智能语音产业、杭州的数字安防产业、无锡的物联网产业等。
04:58
These industries have rapidly emerged and continue to grow and strengthen. According to statistics from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, over 60% of China’s 25 advanced manufacturing clusters are primarily oriented toward the Digital Economy. To build “globally competitive digital industry clusters” at least four conditions should be met: (1) complete digital infrastructure, (2) leading enterprises with strong driving power, (3) robust technological innovation capabilities, and (4) relatively mature industrial ecosystem.
都迅速崛起并不断发展壮大。中国电子信息产业发展研究院统计，中国25个先进制造业集群中，六成以上主导方向是数字经济。而要打造”具有国际竞争力的数字产业集群,” 至少应当具备四个条件，一是完善的数字基础设施。二是带动性强的龙头企业，三是较强的技术创新能力，四是较为成熟的产业生态。
05:33
Second, accelerate innovation and application of digital technologies to empower the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Promote the deep fusion of digital technologies with the real economy by accelerating their innovation and application in key sectors such as agriculture, industry, finance, education, healthcare, transportation, and energy. Digital-real fusion is common point for new growth in both the Digital Economy and the real economy.
二、加快数字技术创新应用，赋能传统产业转型升级。推动数字技术和实体经济深度融合，在农业、工业、金融、教育、医疗、交通、能源等重点领域，加快数字技术创新应用。数实融合是数字经济和实体经济共同的新增长点。
06:02
Our country’s real economy is large in scale and has a solid foundation. However, during the transformation process, it faces challenges in structural optimization and the shift of growth drivers. Due to their high degree of innovation, strong penetration, and wide applicability, digital technologies can empower the real economy by helping traditional industries reduce costs, improve efficiency, drive business innovation, enhance economic quality, and promote digitalized transformation across the entire industrial chain.
我国实体经济规模庞大，根基雄厚。但在转型过程中，面临结构优化和动能转换的考验。而数字技术因其高创新性、强渗透性和广覆盖性。可以赋能实体经济，助力传统产业降本增效、业务创新、提升经济质量，推进全产业链数字化发展。
06:28
Promoting the deep fusion of digital technologies with the real economy is conducive to fully unlocking the value of data elements and the dividends of digital technology. It will give rise to new modes of production, new industrial forms, new business models, and new drivers of economic growth. Accelerating the innovation and application of digital technologies, by leveraging vast amounts of data and a wealth of application scenarios, can empower High Quality Development across various sectors.
推动数字技术和实体经济深度融合，有利于充分释放数据要素和数字技术红利，催生更多新生产方式、新产业形态、新商业模式和新的经济增长点。加快数字技术创新应用，发挥海量数据和丰富应用场景优势，可以赋能各领域高质量发展。
6:56
In the industrial sector, the use of the Industrial Internet enables collaborative design, agile supply chains, flexible manufacturing, and personalized products. Our country has become a global leader in both the scale and level of smart manufacturing applications. In the agricultural sector, platforms built on the Internet of Things support the promotion of smart agriculture models such as intelligent irrigation, intelligent greenhouses, and precision fertilization.
工业领域利用工业互联网能够实现设计协同化、供应敏捷化、制造柔性化、产品个性化。我国智能制造应用规模和水平进入全球领先行列。农业领域，借助物联网打造的平台，有助于推广智能灌溉、智能温室、精准施肥等智慧农业新模式。
07:21
In the financial sector, the use of digital technology has enabled the digitalization of financial information, and the networkization and intelligentization of financial services. Innovations in digital technology in the education and medical fields have brought about changes in school administration, teaching methods, and student learning methods, as well as enabled more application scenarios in areas such as medical research, clinical diagnosis and treatment, and health management. In addition to helping traditional industries improve quality and efficiency, digitalization and intelligentization in the transportation and energy sectors are also prerequisites for achieving carbon neutrality.
金融领域，数字技术的运用使得金融信息数字化、金融服务网络化和智能化得以实现。教育、医疗领域数字技术的创新带来了学校管理、教师教学、学生学习方式的转变，赋能医学研究、临床诊疗、健康管理等更多应用场景。交通 能源领域除帮助传统产业提质增效外，数字化、智能化还是实现碳中和的前置条件。
07:55
Third, support the development and growth of digital enterprises and promote the standardized and healthy development of platform enterprises. Improve working mechanisms for collaborative innovation among large, medium, and small enterprises, leverage “greenlight” investment cases as guiding examples, and promote the standardized and healthy development of platform enterprises. The platform economy, an economic system built on digital technologies, supported by platforms, and driven by data and network-based collaboration, is an important new economic form in the Digital Economy era.
三、支持数字企业发展壮大，推动平台企业规范健康发展。健全大中小企业融通创新工作机制，发挥“绿灯”投资案例引导作用，推动平台企业规范健康发展。平台经济是建立在数字技术基础上，以平台为支撑，基于数据驱动、网络协同而形成的经济系统，是数字经济时代重要的新经济形式。
08:31
The platform economy has fully unleashed market vitality, attracted a wide range of market participants to engage in market competition, and strongly promoted economic innovation and development. At a Politburo meeting in 2020, it was emphasized that antitrust efforts should be strengthened and unchecked capital expansion should be prevented. The 2021 Central Economic Work Conference further proposed setting up “traffic lights” for capital, strengthening effective supervision of capital in accordance with the law, and preventing the reckless growth of capital.
它充分激发了市场活力，吸纳了多类市场主体参与市场竞争，有力促进了经济创新发展。2020年中央政治局会议提出，强化反垄断和防止资本无序扩张。2021年中央经济工作会议又提出要为资本设置“红绿灯，” 依法加强对资本的有效监管，防止资本野蛮生长。
09:01
Since then, the government has carried out focused and specialized governance of the platform economy across multiple areas, including information protection, antitrust, anti-unfair competition, and regulation of recommendation algorithms. These efforts have effectively mitigated the risks of monopoly and market bubbles that previously existed. On October 28, 2022, a report on the development of the Digital Economy from the 37th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress clearly stated that it will support and guide the standardized, healthy, and sustainable development of the platform economy.
此后，国家从信息保护、反垄断、反不正当竞争推荐算法规范等多方面开展了针对平台经济的集中和专项治理，有效化解了此前存在的垄断和泡沫风险。2022年10月28日，十三届全国人大常委会第三十七次会议上，关于数字经济发展情况的报告明确，将支持和引导平台经济规范、健康、持续发展。
09:31
The special rectification of the platform economy has been completed, and normalized supervision is now in place. A series of “greenlight” investment cases have been introduced. On December 26, 2022, the websites of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced the approval of the Harvest JD Warehousing and Logistics Closed-End Infrastructure Securities Investment Fund, marking the first “greenlight” investment case for a major platform enterprise in the capital market. This case has played a positive leading role and become a benchmark encouraged by industrial policy.
完成平台经济专项整改，实施常态化监管，集中推出一批“绿灯”投资案例。2022年12月26日，证监会及上交所网站显示，嘉实京东仓储物流封闭式基础设施证券投资基金成功获批。成为资本市场首个大型平台企业“绿灯”投资案例，这一案例充分发挥了正向引领作用，成为产业政策鼓励的风向标。
10:07
In the spring of 2023, supporting the healthy development of the platform economy became a key focus for local governments. Provinces such as Jiangsu, Shandong, Shaanxi, Henan, and Hunan introduced a series of policies to support the development of the platform economy.
2023年春，支持平台经济健康发展成为各地政府“重头戏”。江苏、山东、陕西、河南、湖南等地纷纷出台相关政策。支持平台经济发展。
Footnotes
- Digital Economy (数字经济). “The Digital Economy is the primary economic form following the agricultural and industrial economies. It takes data resources as the key factor of production, modern information networks as the main carrier, and the fused application of information and communication technologies along with the digital transformation of all factors of production as its main drivers. It represents a new economic form that promotes a more unified balance between equity and efficiency,” see “What is the Digital Economy” (什么是数字经济), Wuhan People’s Government, October 30, 2024. ↩︎
- modernized industrial system (现代化产业体系). A “modernized industrial system” is the material and technological foundation of a modern nation. “Without the modernization of the industrial system, there can be no modernization of the economy; without a solid material and technological foundation, it is impossible to fully build a Modernized Socialist Great Power” (如何理解建设现代化产业体系？), see “What Does It Mean to Build a Modernized Industrial System,” Communist Party Member Network, December 29, 2022. ↩︎
- High Quality Development (高质量发展). “High-quality development means a change from merely seeking growth to seeking better growth and seeking quality over quantity,” see “What to know about China’s high-quality development,” Xinhua, March 18, 2024. ↩︎
- new opportunities in a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation (新一轮科技革命和产业变革新机遇). “When Chinese leaders speak of a “new round of techno-scientific revolution and industrial transformation” they envision a suite of new technologies whose development will have an economic impact comparable to the invention of steam power, electricity, or the computer,” see The Center for Strategic Translation Glossary: “New Round of Techno-Scientific Revolution and Industrial Transformation.” ↩︎