At a Glance: Below is a list of official documents on China’s elite digital strategies (Digital China, Cyber Great Power, and Smart Society) that are referenced on this website, organized chronologically. They offer us an official lens on strategy evolution. The period divisions in the list represent my analysis, not official Chinese policy stages.
This list remains a work in progress. But check back later. I have much to add, as time permits. 🤞
2013–2016 | Strategic Origins and Foundations
Early Cyber Great Power thinking, national informatization strategy, and foundational policy design.
| Date /Authority/Type | Title | Strategic Significance | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-04-03 Zheng Bijian 郑必坚 / State Council Secretariat Second Bureau Strategic proposal | Face the Challenge with Comprehensive Planning; Strive to Build a World-Class Cyber Great Power in Ten Years 直面挑战 统筹经略 力争十年建成世界一流网络强国 | Zheng Bijian’s classified 2013 proposal to the Central Committee to build China into a Cyber Great Power within ten years. A historic exchange. | Analysis | Translation | |
| 2013-07-28 Central Committee Leadership response | “Comrade Zheng Bijian’s Proposal on Building a World-Class Cyber Great Power Deserves Careful Study” 郑必坚同志关于建设世界一流网络强国的建议值得认真研究 | This is the Central Committee’s classified response to Zheng Bijian’s 2013 proposal to build China into a Cyber Great Power within ten years. A historic exchange. | Analysis | Translation | |
| 2015-10-29 CCP / Xi Jinping Foundational national strategy | Military-Civil Fusion Development Strategy 军民融合发展战略 | “Addressing the plenary meeting of the military delegates to the third session of the 12th National People’s Congress in March 2015, Xi Jinping announced a plan to step up military-civilian fusion as part of a national strategy. At its fifth plenary session in October 2015, the 18th CPC Central Committee decided to implement a strategy of building an extensive and efficient multi-sector structure for fusing military and civilian resources.” | | Analysis | Source: SCIO | |
| 2016-04-19 Xi Jinping Leadership speech | Xi Jinping: Speech at the Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization 习近平：在网络安全和信息化工作座谈会上的讲话 | The term “information aorta” was coined by Xi Jinping in his famous “4.19” speech at the 2016 Work Conference for Cybersecurity and Informatization. The term quickly became the standard PRC media metaphor for “New Type Infrastructure,” and an important part of the Party’s historical narrative on Digital China. | Analysis | Translation: China Copyright and Media | Source: Xinhua |
| 2016-07-27 CCP Central Committee General Office; State Council General Office Foundational national strategy | Central Committee General Office and State Council General Office Issue Outline of the National Informatization Development Strategy 中共中央办公厅 国务院办公厅印发国家信息化发展战略纲要 | The 2016 Outline only includes a single reference to the high importance of accelerating Digital China in support of informatization on page 8 of the 17-page document, but it marks the emergence of the Party’s efforts to build a new narrative aligning Xi’s vision for Digital China with existing efforts at National Informatization. Notably, the Plan also contained the first official reference to the term New Type Infrastructure, although still in an unjelled form. | Analysis | Translation: China Copyright and Media , DigiChina | Source: Xinhua |
2017–2023 | National Strategy and Institutional Consolidation
From the 19th Party Congress’s strategic recognition through operational development and the 2023 consolidation of framework and institutions.
1. Strategic Recognition (2017)
| Date /Authority/Type | Title | Strategic Significance | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-10-18 CCP / Xi Jinping Party Congress Political Report | Political Report to the 19th CCP National Congress 中国共产党第十九次全国代表大会报告 | “The 19th Party Congress described the grand blueprint for … starting a new journey to build a modernized socialist country in all respects and to realize the Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation, and made strategic plans to build a Cyber Great Power, a Digital China, and a Smart Society. Xi Jinping, “Congratulatory Letter to the First Digital China Summit,” Fuzhou, Fujian Province, April 22, 2018. | Analysis: Pacific Forum | Translation: China.org.cn |
| 2017-11-27 State Council Guiding Opinion | State Council Guiding Opinion on Deepening “Internet Plus Advanced Manufacturing” and Developing the Industrial Internet 国务院关于深化“互联网+先进制造业” 发展工业互联网的指导意见 | The guiding opinion launches national industrial internet architecture and policy. This document represents the early transition from the 2015 “Internet Plus” era to the 2020 “New Type Infrastructure” era. It is the bridge where the Party realized that simply “adding the Internet” wasn’t enough for digitalized transformation. | | Analysis | Source: Central Government | |
2. Operational Development (2018–2022)
| Date /Authority/Type | Title | Strategic Significance | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-05-31 MIIT Action Plan / Work Plan | Industrial Internet Development Action Plan (2018–2020) 工业互联网发展行动计划（2018-2020年） Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2018 Work Plan 工业互联网专项工作组2018年工作计划 | The 2018 Work Plan established the Industrial Internet Special Working Group under the National Manufacturing Great Power Construction Leading Small Group. SASTIND was part of that structure from the start, highlighting the early links between the Industrial Internet and Military-Civil Fusion. The plan describes 2018–2020 as the startup phase of China’s Industrial Internet construction, seeking to build initial Industrial Internet infrastructure by 2020. | | Analysis | Source: CAC | |
| 2018-12-27 MIIT, SASTIND Action Plan | MIIT and SASTIND Issue Notice on the Action Plan to Advance the Intelligent Transformation of Ship Assembly and Construction 工业和信息化部 国防科工局关于印发《推进船舶总装建造智能化转型行动计划（2019-2021年）》的通知 | The action plan treats shipbuilding modernization as a problem of networks, data flows, identifiers, cloud platforms, security capabilities, information integration, and industrial-chain collaborative operation. In short, the Industrial Internet was framed as connective infrastructure for the shipbuilding industrial chain, “an efficient and reliable Industrial Internet Network Infrastructure for shipyards…” | | Analysis | Source: Xinhua | |
| 2020-03-06 MIIT Notification | Notice on Advancing the Accelerated Development of the Industrial Internet 关于推动工业互联网加快发展的通知 | Often summarized as the Industrial Internet “Twenty Measures,” the document calls for accelerating Industrial Internet development across six areas including New Type Infrastructure. | | Analysis | Source: MIIT | |
| 2020-12-22 MIIT Action Plan | Industrial Internet Innovative Development Action Plan 2021–2023 工业互联网创新发展行动计划 2021-2023年 | This plan marked the transition from startup to rapid growth, noting that the 2018–2020 startup-phase had been completed, and that 2021–2023 would be the rapid-growth phase. Among the plan’s five developmental priorities was New Type Infrastructure. | | Analysis | Source: MIIT | |
| 2022-04-06 MIIT Work Plan | Industrial Internet Special Working Group 2022 Work Plan 工业互联网专项工作组2022年工作计划 | The shipbuilding industry appears directly in the 2022 Work Plan. The plan itself focuses on the acceleration of the “5G + Industrial Internet” initiative. | | Analysis | Source: MIIT | |
| 2022-07-23 CAC Yearly Report | Digital China Development Report 2021 数字中国发展报告 2021年 | The report traces the origins of Digital China at the national level to Xi Jinping at the 18th Party Congress in November 2012, and linked Digital China to the concepts of Global Digitalized Development and Digitalized Transformation. | | Analysis | Source: CAC | |
3. Strategic and Institutional Consolidation (2023)
| Date /Authority/Type | Title | Strategic Significance | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-02-27 Central Committee; State Council | Plan for the Global Layout of Digital China Construction 数字中国建设整体布局规划 | The plan made substantial changes to the existing Digital China strategy. These three changes are the most significant, with the final two qualifying as paradigm shifts: (1) A Digital Security Barrier was added as a new strategic means; (2) The “Information Technology Industrial Ecosystem” was updated to the far more expansive Digital Technology Innovation System; and (3) the International Environment was added to Digital China’s top-level design, explicitly making Digital China a global strategy for the first time. | | Analysis | Translation: DigiChina | Source: Xinhua | |
| 2023-03-16 Central Committee; State Council Institutional reform plan | Plan for Reform of Party and State Institutions 党和国家机构改革方案 | The National Data Administration is established as a central government body to oversee national data governance and implement the Digital China strategy. This marks the transition of Digital China from a guiding national strategy into a permanently institutionalized governance system. Section 14 of the Plan (Establish an NDA) includes three main points on managing implementation of Digital China: (1) NDA responsibilities, (2) CCAC responsibilities reassigned to the NDA, and (3) NDRC responsibilities reassigned to the NDA. Also see, the “Proposal (to the 14th NPC) on the Plan for the Reform of State Council Institutions (关于提请审议国务院机构改革方案的议案)” dated March 5, 2023. | Analysis | Translation: CSET, Ginger River Review | Source: Xinhua | Archive: Perma.cc |
2024–2026 | Implementation Architecture and Digital-Intelligent Transformation
National data infrastructure, smart cities, AI+, industrial deployment, and 15th Five-Year planning.
| Date /Authority/Type | Title | Strategic Significance | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-05-20 NDRC, NDA, MOF, and MNR Guiding Opinion | Guiding Opinion on Deeping the Development of Smart Cities and Advancing Whole-of-City Digitalized Transformation 关于深化智慧城市发展 推进城市全域数字化转型的指导意见(发改数据 | This may be the first appearance of the term “Whole-of-City Digitalized Transformation” in an official document. | | Analysis | Source: NDRC | |
| 2024-12-30 NDA Terminology guidance | Glossary of Commonly Used Terms in the Data Domain (Batch One) 数据领域常用名词解释 第一批 | These NDA definitions offer an early blueprint for how the Party intends to structure China’s data domain over the next decade. Notably, the definitions specifically addressed the concepts of Whole-of-City Digitalized Transformation and the Industrial Internet. | | Translation | Source: NDA | |
| 2025-06-05 MIIT Information and Communication Management Bureau and Manufacturing Industry No. 2 Bureau Sector reference guide | Reference Guide on the Fused Application of the Industrial Internet in the Shipbuilding Industry 工业互联网与船舶行业融合应用参考指南 | Beijing began working to improve military-civil fusion in its science and technology systems through the Industrial Internet as early as 2015. The shipbuilding industry was specifically identified as an industry of interest as early as June 2018. The June 2025 shipbuilding reference guide is the first publicly revealed implementation of the goal across a dual-use industrial sector. | | Analysis | Translation | Source: Association of the Industrial Internet | Archive | |
| 2025-10-31 NDRC, NDA, MOF, MNR, and MOHURD. | Action Plan on Deepening Smart City Development and Advancing All-Domain Digitalized Transformation 深化智慧城市发展推进全域数字化转型行动计划 | This document reflects a continuing national effort to expand implementation of Smart Cities and Whole-of-City Digitalized Transformation. | | Analysis | Source: NDRC | |
Acronyms: Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), Military-Civil Fusion (MCF), Ministry of Finance (MOF), Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD),National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), National Data Administration (NDA), State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND)
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