6G Photo: VCG

China will continue to accelerate the research and development (R&D) and innovation of 6G cellular technology and upgrade its 5G mobile network to reach the 5G-A level under its new data infrastructure construction plan, which was released on Monday.

"The implementation of this plan can accelerate the construction of 'digital China,' promote the development of the digital economy, and enhance the modernization and digitalization of the national governance system," Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

By 2029, the main structure of China's data infrastructure will be basically completed, featuring a data circulation and usage system, an ecosystem for data-related industries, and a mechanism for data infrastructure construction and operation, under the plan jointly published by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday.

The plan aims to define the future vision for data infrastructure development, guide the advancement of data infrastructure construction, enable data circulation, foster data application development and establish a unified national data market. 

"The national data infrastructure is a new type of infrastructure that supports data collection, aggregation, transmission, processing, circulation, utilization, operation and security, while China is embarking on a new phase of data-centric digital infrastructure development," said Wang.

The essence of data infrastructure construction is to guarantee the comprehensive interconnection of data on the internet, Wang noted.

To realize the interconnection of data infrastructure, China will establish a unified national data "ledger," supporting orderly data circulation and shared applications across different levels, regions, systems, departments and business sectors, according to the plan.

Wang also pointed out the significance of increasing R&D efforts in data processing, transmission, storage and other areas to enhance the system's technological level and reduce construction costs.

"The plan sets out specific construction tasks for building national data infrastructure in areas including data circulation and utilization, computing power, networks and security," Wang noted.

China will enhance collaboration between large-scale wind and solar power bases and computing hub nodes to help transform green renewable energy into sustainable computing power. It will actively promote the consumption of green energy resources in data computing to help achieve its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

While increasing the usage of green power, China will also seek to improve its data analysis capability to reduce the power consumption required for large language model calculations.

According to the document, China will build a highly reliable network with guaranteed latency, stable bandwidth, and good transmission quality and it will deploy an integrated space-earth satellite-based internet system.

A balanced layout of international communication gateway bureaus will be established in the eastern, central and western regions, and the expansion of international submarine and terrestrial cable information channels will be accelerated, it said.

China will promote 400G/800G high-bandwidth all-optical connections between the national hub node and users, while encouraging telecom operators to enhance the efficiency of "public transmission arteries" to promote the deep integration of mobile networks, read the plan.

China will also support the creation of high-quality data centers in agriculture, industry, transportation, finance, natural resources, health, education, science and technology, civil aviation, meteorology and other sectors.

The rapid development of digital economy has created new and higher demand for the circulation and utilization of data. It urgently requires the better functioning of the government and an effective market to create a national data infrastructure that balances efficiency and fairness, adapts to the realities of modern data usage, and unleashes the potential of data value, the three departments said.

In recent years, China has achieved remarkable results in the construction of data infrastructure. In particular, network and computing infrastructure construction are at the world's leading level, Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Beijing-based Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times.

"China has achieved success in 5G technology and standards and has also applied it across a wide range of fields such as intelligent manufacturing, ports and mining, which has laid a good foundation for its 6G development, accompanied by the continuous enhancement of 5G-A technology," said Xiang.

According to statistics from the MIIT, China had built 4.19 million 5G base stations as of the end of November, 2024. 

The 5G network has been applied in 74 out of 97 major categories of the national economy. There are more than 15,000 "5G+ industrial internet" projects nationwide, effectively promoting the development of the manufacturing industry toward high-end, intelligent and green, according to the MIIT.