In recent years, in response to domestic and international developments and the need for its own transformation and upgrading, China’s shipbuilding industry has, building on the continuous improvement of its core infrastructure, actively explored the application of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, virtual simulation, the Industrial Internet, 5G, and digital twins, and has achieved some success.
Reference Guide on the Fused Application of the Industrial Internet in the Shipbuilding Industry, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, June 5, 2025
Milestone Summary
What happened:
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a comprehensive reference guide launching the fused application of the Industrial Internet across the entire shipbuilding industry, explicitly spanning both civilian and defense sectors.
Why it matters:
This marks the first public, system-level integration of Industrial Internet architecture into a defense industrial sector, signaling a new phase of Digital China where industrial digitalization directly supports military modernization.
Strategic function:
To unify design, production, and supply chains through data-driven, digital-intelligent systems that enhance efficiency, resilience, and innovation.
Systemic impact:
The initiative links upstream suppliers, midstream shipbuilders, and downstream civilian and defense applications into a single, data-coordinated industrial ecosystem.
Long-term signal:
Digital China is evolving from sectoral digitalization into full-spectrum industrial mobilization where economic infrastructure and national security systems are increasingly integrated.
A New Phase of Digital China: From Industrial Upgrade to System Integration
China’s shipbuilding sector has become the first major defense-linked industry publicly to undergo full-scale digital transformation through the Industrial Internet. The newly released MIIT reference guide lays out a detailed roadmap for integrating digital technologies across the entire shipbuilding lifecycle from research and design to manufacturing, delivery, and maintenance.
This is not a narrow effort to modernize a legacy industry. It is the construction of a unified industrial system powered by data, connectivity, and intelligent decision-making. The shipbuilding industry, long recognized as a strategic pillar of national power, is now being repositioned as a testbed for the next stage of Digital China.
The significance lies in scope. Rather than digitizing individual firms or processes, the initiative seeks to digitally integrate the entire industrial chain, linking suppliers, manufacturers, and end users into a continuous, data-driven system.
Industrial Internet as Foundational Infrastructure
At the center of this transformation is the Industrial Internet, identified as the foundational infrastructure enabling digitalized, networked, and intelligent development across the sector. Within China’s broader New Type Infrastructure framework, the Industrial Internet functions as a system integrator. It connects machines, people, data, and platforms into a unified operational environment.
In practical terms, this enables: real-time coordination across production sites, integrated supply chain visibility, intelligent quality monitoring and traceability, and data-driven optimization of design and manufacturing.
In strategic terms, it transforms industrial capacity into a responsive, adaptive system capable of scaling output, improving efficiency, and maintaining resilience under stress.
The “155N” Architecture: Designing a Digital-Intelligent Industrial System
The guide introduces a structured development model, the “155N” framework, to drive this transformation. At its core is “1” objective: building a modernized shipbuilding system that is efficient, safe, and environmentally sustainable through the full exploitation of data as a factor of production.
This objective is supported by “5” foundational capabilities (data, networks, platforms, identifiers, and safety), “5” safeguards (organizational, institutional, financial, talent, and cultural systems), and “N” application scenarios (an open-ended set of use cases spanning R&D, manufacturing, and management). Together, these elements form a scalable architecture for industrial digitalization. The emphasis is not just on technology deployment, but on building the institutional and organizational systems required to sustain transformation over time.
A Quiet Breakthrough in Military-Civil Fusion
Although the document does not explicitly frame the initiative as Military-Civil Fusion, the implications are clear. For the first time publicly, a Digital China industrial architecture, the Industrial Internet, is being systematically extended across a sector that directly supports national defense.
The shipbuilding ecosystem is defined as consisting of three parts: upstream suppliers of materials and components, midstream shipbuilders and production facilities, and downstream applications including commercial shipping and defense industries. This creates a unified industrial base where civilian and military production systems are digitally interconnected.
In effect, the Industrial Internet becomes the operational layer through which civilian and defense industrial capabilities are coordinated in practice. This is where military-civil fusion is realized: embedded within the architecture of production itself.
From Digitization to Digital-Intelligent Transformation
The initiative also reflects a deeper shift in how China approaches industrial modernization. Earlier phases of Digital China focused on moving processes into digital form. The current phase moves beyond this toward digital-intelligent transformation, where data is continuously analyzed and used to guide decision-making across the system.
In the shipbuilding context, this includes intelligent, unmanned assembly processes; data-driven design optimization; predictive maintenance and lifecycle management; and real-time supply chain coordination. The result is not simply a more efficient industry, but a fundamentally different type of industrial system that operates as an integrated, intelligent network.
Still Early—but Strategically Decisive
The guide acknowledges that implementation remains in an early and exploratory stage. Progress to date is uneven, and many applications are still being tested and refined. But the direction is clear. By prioritizing sectors like shipbuilding and petrochemicals for full-chain digitalization, Beijing is moving to transform its industrial base into a data-driven system capable of supporting both economic growth and national security objectives.
Strategic Implications: Industrial Systems as Instruments of National Power
This milestone reveals a critical evolution in Digital China. The focus is no longer limited to building digital infrastructure or advancing individual technologies. Instead, the emphasis is shifting toward integrating entire industrial systems through digital-intelligent architectures.
In this model data becomes a core factor of production, industrial systems become networked and adaptive, and civilian and defense capabilities become structurally interconnected. The shipbuilding initiative offers a clear preview of where this trajectory leads.
Digital China is not simply modernizing industry. It is redesigning the industrial base as a unified, intelligent system capable of generating economic strength, technological advantage, and military capability within a single integrated framework.