2 Developments & Milestones – Page 2 – Digital China Wins The Future

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Digital China Wins The Future

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Category: 2 Developments & Milestones

12 Posts

2 Developments & Milestones

Strategy Milestone: Industrial Internet Development Supports Military-Civil Fusion

April 13, 2022

Digital China written in English and Chinese suspended over a digital globe

2 Developments & Milestones

Strategy Milestone: Digital China Tagged as Top Priority of National Informatization

July 27, 2016

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1. DIGITAL CHINA STACK
Browse by architectural layer

Compute Layer: Produces computational capacity

Data Layer: Organizes and circulates data as a factor of production

Intelligence Layer: Transforms data and compute into machine capability

Deployment Layer: Embeds machine capability across the economy, society, and the state

Governance Layer: Sets the rules for ownership, flow, control, and global influence

Full Stack: Spans the entire national data system

2. INSIGHT DEPTH
Browse by content type

Analysis & Commentary: Interpretive essays and open source analysis

Briefs & Notes: Short updates, visuals, and references of interest

Developments & Milestones: Key events, documents, and institutional updates

Explainers: Foundational introductions to key concepts

Translations & Terminology: Translations and clarification of specialized terms

3. VOCABULARLY OF STRATEGY
Understanding Digital China means speaking its language

“With a decades-long personal tie to General Secretary Xi Jinping, the Digital China strategy is designed to lift China’s core competitiveness and societal efficiency through comprehensive digital transformation at the national level. Mostly unknown in the West, Digital China has profound implications for China’s developmental path, great power competition, and for the norms that will undergird the international system for decades to come.”
David Dorman and John Hemmings, Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications, Issues and Insights, February 20, 2023

“[The 15th Five-Year Plan] focuses on the efficient supply of compute, algorithms, and data, as well as the use of digital-intelligent technologies to empower economic and social development, charting a clear course for the construction of Digital China over the next five years.”
“Charting a Clear Course for the Construction of Digital China: The 15th Five-Year Plan Centers on Data,” China Central Television News, March 17, 2026

“As the National Unified Computing Power Network becomes increasingly dense and fully developed, computing power will truly become as accessible and efficiently circulated as water and electricity, providing a continuous and powerful source of momentum for the construction of Digital China.”
Liu Tong, Strengthen Computing Power New-Type Infrastructure to Consolidate the Foundation of Digital China, People’s Posts and Telecommunications, March 13, 2026

“During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, we must anchor our efforts to the goal of the construction of Digital China, accelerate the coordinated deployment of National Data Infrastructure, open the aorta of data circulation, enable the large-scale circulation of data resources, promote the development and application of data, and strengthen data security governance, thereby providing strong support for high-quality economic and social development.”
Liu Liehong, Using Advanced Data Infrastructure to Support the Construction of Digital China, Qiushi, March 01, 2026

“On the new journey of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Deeply Advancing the Construction of Digital China is not merely a technological revolution, but a systemic transformation bearing on the modernization of the National Governance System, High Quality Economic Development, and the advancement of social civilization.”
Zhang Yixin, Construction of Digital China Enters a New Stage of Comprehensive Deepening, Chinese Social Sciences Today, December 09, 2025, Page A01

“Cities are the comprehensive carriers for advancing Digital China. From top-level design to specific practices, the more Smart Cities evolve, the more urban life renews.”
Li Junqiang, “Evolving" Cities, "Renewed" Living, People's Daily, December 1, 2025, Page 5

“As a new generation of intelligent comprehensive digital information infrastructure, 6G will break through the traditional scope of mobile communication, achieving deep fusion of communications with intelligence, sensing, computing, and security.”
Zhang Yunming, Vice Minister, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Speech to the 2025 6G Development Conference, November 13, 2025.

“We must accelerate Building Digital China, build a digital economy with data as the key factor, 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.”
New Ideas Lead a New Journey: Digital China Paints a New Picture of High Quality Development, CCTV-13, June 12, 2024

“In the era of artificial intelligence, China was the first country in the world to put forward the major concept of data as a factor of production. This conceptual innovation elevated data to an unprecedented level of strategic importance.”
Deng Zhonghan, “Chip” Journey: China’s Strength in the Computing Power Era, Digital China Summit Organizing Committee, May 16, 2025

“Accelerating the construction of Digital China is an inevitable choice to advance Chinese Style Modernization and seize the commanding heights of future development. It is an inevitable requirement for advancing the modernization of the National Governance System and governance capabilities. It is also an inevitable choice to advance the building of a Community of Common Destiny for Mankind.”
Why Should We Accelerate Digital China Construction?, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Digital infrastructure is composed of computing power infrastructure, network infrastructure, and application infrastructure, together establishing the cornerstone for Digital China. To consolidate the foundation for Digital China construction, we must first start from these three aspects and open up the aorta of digital infrastructure.”
Open the Aorta of Digital Infrastructure, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Data is a new important factor of production after land, labor, capital, and technology. To consolidate the foundation for constructing Digital China, we must also facilitate the grand circulation of data resources…”
Facilitate the Grand Circulation of Data Resources, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“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.”
Strengthen, Optimize, Expand the Digital Economy, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“…we will continue to… further leverage digital technologies to enhance the ability of decision-making departments to perceive, monitor, and anticipate (i.e. provide early warning on) developments in the economy and society.”
Develop Efficient and Collaborative Digital Government Affairs, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Digital culture is a important force in enhancing national cultural soft power...”
Create a Confident and Prosperous Digital Culture, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“From Smart Cities to Digital Communities, from smart industries to digital products, the tentacles of “digital” have increasingly extended to every corner, profoundly changing people’s lives.”
Build an Inclusive and Convenient Digital Society, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Digitalization enables greening, and greening drives digitalization.”
Build a Green and Smart Digital Ecological Civilization, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“In addition to improving the New Style Whole-of-Nation System and ensuring the government plays its organizational role in tackling critical and core technologies, it is also essential to emphasize the central role of enterprises in technological innovation.”
Construct a Self-Reliant and Self-Strengthening Digital Technology Innovation System, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Improving the Institutional System for Digital Security and building a flexible, resilient, and robust Digital Security Industrial Ecosystem will help establish a trustworthy and controllable Digital Security Barrier. This is essential for meeting the major security demands of our country’s digital transformation and will provide strong momentum for the construction of Cyber Great Power and Digital China.”
Build a Strong, Trustworthy, and Controllable Digital Security Barrier, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Ensuring the healthy and sustainable development of Digital China requires continuous improvement of the environment for digitalized development and the creation of an equitable and orderly digital governance ecosystem.”
Build an Equitable and Orderly Digital Governance Ecosystem, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“Deepen international cooperation in the digital domain and actively participate in the process of building an international digital governance system, as this becomes the key arena where countries compete for discourse power over the redistribution of interests in the digital age.”
Build an Open and Win-Win Pattern of International Cooperation in the Digital Domain, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“The path to constructing Digital China is expansive, its significance profound, and its tasks formidable.”
Strengthen Global Planning and Systemic Advancement of Digital China, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“The important goals of Digital China construction are to overcome the shortcomings of Western digital capitalism and big data capitalism…”
Shan Xiaoxi, “Digital Modernity: The Discourse Paradigm of Chinese New Media Literary Theory,” Social Sciences in China, March 10, 2025

“Pakistan should take solid steps to bolster reforms related to the market-oriented allocation of data factors and speed up the construction of digital infrastructure… as part of its broader push to advance the building of a Digital Pakistan, just like Digital China.”
Zafar Iqbal, Vice President, Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry, March 6, 2025

“In April 2023, Singapore’s then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Chinese President Xi Jinping … agreed to establish a new bilateral policy dialogue platform to identify potential synergies between China’s Digital China Plan and Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative.”
Opening Remarks, Singapore Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Tan Kiat How, Singapore-China Digital Policy Dialogue, June 27, 2024

“PRC officials continued to promote “Digital China,” one of Party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s long-term strategic plans, which prioritizes the digitalization of governance in China and expansive control of data.”
2023 Annual Report, Congressional-Executive Commission on China, May 10, 2024

“China inaugurated the National Data Administration … to advance the planning and building of a Digital China, the digital economy and a digital society.”
China Inaugurates National Data Administration, Xinhua, October 25, 2023

“China’s national digital grand strategy, known as “Digital China,” has quietly emerged as a formidable force in the global technology landscape. Astonishingly, this crucial development has largely escaped the attention of mainstream media, despite its far-reaching implications for the entire planet…”
What Is The Secret Digital China Strategy All About?, The Times of India, June 13, 2023

“Although the National Data Administration is only a newly established department, its government functions and responsibilities are quite heavy and arduous… Among these, the overall planning and promotion of Digital China construction which includes the construction of a digital economy, digital society, digital government, digital ecology, and a modern industrial system, are all major issues in current national economic and social development. Therefore, the National Data Administration has a long way to go.”
Li Guangqian (Development Research Center of the State Council), Injecting New Momentum Into Digital China Construction, Legal Daily, March 15, 2023

“Accelerating Building Digital China has become the inevitable choice to harness the driving and leading role of Informatization and to advance Chinese Style Modernization.”
Zhuang Rongwen, Deeply Implement the Spirit of the 20th National Party Congress and Advance Chinese Style Modernization Through Digital China Construction, People’s Daily, March 03, 2023, Page 10

“The Plan clarifies that the construction of Digital China will be laid out in accordance with the global framework of '2522'… [including] … to optimize the domestic and international 'two environments' for digitalized development.”
Central Committee and State Council Publish Plan for the Global Layout of Digital China Construction, Xinhua, February 27, 2023

“We must … give full play to the driving and leading role of informatization and digitalization in Chinese-Style Modernization; [and] continuously advance the construction of Cyber Great Power and Digital China; [all] to provide strong support for the … comprehensive advancement of the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation.”
Cao Shumin, Deputy Director, Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, Driving and Leading Chinese-Style Modernization with Informatization and Digitalization, Red Flag Manuscript, Jan. 26, 2023

“Since the 18th Party Congress, the Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core has been far-sighted, seized the major historical opportunities of global digitalized development and digitalized transformation, and systemically planned and coordinated the construction of Digital China.”
2021 Digital China Development Report, Cyberspace Administration of China, July 23, 2022

“In 2017, the 19th Party Congress report clearly proposed to build “Cyber Great Power, Digital China, and Smart Society,” and Digital China was written into Party and state programmatic documents for the first time.”
2021 Digital China Development Report, Cyberspace Administration of China, July 23, 2022

“…the new "south-facing, north-linking, east-integrating, and west-merging" pattern of all-around opening and development is taking shape.”
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

“Building Digital China is General Secretary Xi Jinping's answer to this era's question on how to further liberate the development of the forces of production with innovation in science and technology as the core.”
Jiang Xiaoli and Liu Zhaokun, Analysis of the Significance and Key Points of Constructing Digital China, People’s Tribune Online, April 1, 2022

“With the rapid development of new generation information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence; data has become a fundamental strategic resource and a key revolutionary factor (of production) for the digital age. Whoever can better recognize and seize the general trend of digitalization, and better adapt to and lead the developmental direction of new forces of production, will be able to win the new omnidirectional competition for comprehensive national power.”
Digital China Wins the Future, Outlook Weekly Magazine, Governance Events Column, February 19, 2022

“The construction of Digital China [rests] on a secure base of New Type Infrastructure and on data as the foundational strategic resource.”
Liu Mixia (Associate Professor, Central Party School), The Construction of Digital China Requires Systems Thinking, Study Times, June 4, 2021

“Digital China is the concrete objective of building a Cyber Great Power. From the perspective of practical implementation, the building of a Cyber Great Power provides the foundation and technical support for building Digital China, while Digital China is the concrete manifestation and outcome of a Cyber Great Power… The Cyber Great Power strategy and building Digital China complement and reinforce each other, and ultimately unite in the construction of a Modernized Socialist Nation”
Liu Yunjie (Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering), Explaining the Cyber Great Power Layout in the 14th Five-Year Plan, Outlook Weekly, January 27, 2021

“Smart Society is a New Stage in the development of human society after Agricultural Society, Industrial Society, and Information Society, possessing extraordinary significance in revolutionizing the world.”
Wu Xiaolin, Highlighting Chinese Values in Smart Society, Guangming Daily, January 21, 2021

“The report of the 19th National Party Congress stated that “the principal contradiction in our society has transformed into the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing need for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.” This shift in contradictions is a change of global and historical significance, posing new demands on many aspects of our Party and country. Developing Digital China is about responding to these new changes and new demands, using digitalized means to resolve and address social contradictions. Against this backdrop, the central government explicitly put forward the new concept of building a “Smart Society” in the report.”
“The Mission of Digital China: Building a Smart Society,” Informatization of China Construction, August 29, 2018

“From Digital Fujian to Digital China, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s strategic thinking on building an informatized China has been consistent, in one continuous line, and highly connected to thought and theory. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the Core has executed a visionary strategic plan to build a Cyber Great Power and Digital China, driving historic change and gaining an historic achievement in the promotion of our country’s informatized development.”
Digital Fujian is the Ideological Source of Digital China, Guangming Daily, Page 1, April 23, 2018

"Accelerating Building Digital China and vigorously developing the information economy are the top priorities of informatization work."
The Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office Publish the Outline of the National Informatization Development Strategy, Central Government, July 27, 2016

“…the development and application of big data, a basic strategic resource, will help promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation, transform and upgrade traditional industries, and cultivate new engines for economic development and new advantages in international competition.”
The State Council Executive Meeting Approves Action Outline to Promote the Development of Big Data, Central Government, August 19, 2015

“The struggle between China and the United States in cyberspace is intensifying. The U.S. policy of containment against China has expanded from physical space to cyberspace, aiming to place China in a passive position. Cyber warfare is no longer a matter of whether we want to fight it or not; it has reached a point where we have no choice but to respond."
Zheng Bijian, Face the Challenge with Comprehensive Planning; Strive to Build a World Class Cyber Great Power in Ten Years, State Council Secretariat Second Bureau, April 3, 2013