Stack Innovation Layer - Digital China Wins the Future

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Digital China Wins the Future

Analyzing the policy, structure, and evolution of China’s national digital strategy

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Category: Stack Innovation Layer

2 Posts

Analysis, Stack Innovation Layer, Strategic Means

6G for Digital China: From 5G Buildout to AI-Native Networks

November 18, 2025

Explainer, Stack Innovation Layer, Strategic Drivers

Digital China: The Strategy and Its Geopolitical Implications

February 20, 2023

The Master Keys

Key One: China has an elite digital triad of national strategies: Cyber Great Power, Digital China, and Smart Society. Together, they drive the country's digital-intelligent transformation into a Modernized Socialist Great Power. Although this website focuses on Digital China, understanding its full scope requires knowing all three.

Key Two: Digital China is both a strategy and a stack. The strategy—an ends, ways, and means framework—explains how the Party generates and employs digital power. The stack—a layered system architecture—shows how that power is built. Together, they provide an integrated model for understanding China’s national digital strategy.

In Their Own Words

“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

"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

“From Digital Fujian to Digital China, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s strategic thinking on building an informatized China has been consistent, continuous, and closely connected in 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

“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), How Should Cyber Great Power Development Be Planned During the 14th Five-Year Plan? Outlook Weekly, January 27, 2021

“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

“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 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

“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

“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

“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

“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 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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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 a Cyber Great Power and Digital China.”
Build a Strong, Trustworthy, and Controllable Digital Security Barrier, Beijing Party Member Education Network, April 11, 2025

“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

“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

“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

“[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