In his own words, China’s president outlines a vision of digital economy with 5G connectivity and data at its core

China should focus on areas of strategic significance, such as integrated circuits, displays, communications equipment and intelligent hardware, Xi wrote

China should create an early warning system for the digital economy, with processes to ensure the security of key technologies, vital industries and facilities, strategic resources and leading enterprises

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A giant screen in the Anhui provincial city of Fuyang broadcasting a speech by the Chinese President Xi Jinping on July 1, 2021 during the centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Part of China (CPC). Photo: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Published: 8:15pm, 15 Jan 2022Updated: 8:21pm, 15 Jan 2022

China’s president has outlined his vision of a digital economy with 5G connectivity as its backbone and nationwide data management at its core, as he channelled the forces of technology to serve socioeconomic development in the world’s second-largest economy.

“The development of the digital economy is of great significance, and a strategy to grasp new opportunities in technological revolution and industrial transformation,” President Xi Jinping wrote in a bylined article on Saturday in the Qiushi Journal, the mouthpiece publication of the Communist Party’s Central Committee.

The Qiushi essay, similar to a speech he delivered via state media in October, offers a rare glimpse of the president’s own words on the current state and the future deployment of China’s technological pursuits. It also puts into context the government’s year-long antitrust crackdown on the nation’s Big Tech companies, which has wiped out US$1 trillion of value from their stocks.

China should “cultivate a number of enterprises with international competitiveness, and leading ecological firms with control over industrial chains, to create world-class digital industry clusters,” he wrote. “Compared with [other large] countries, China’s digital economy is big but not strong, fast but not superior.”

When he spoke about the digital economy last October, Xi outlined a plan to engage the internet, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence to chart the country’s economic future.

The presidential edict was followed this week by a blueprint on the digital economy issued by the Chinese government’s cabinet, which pushed for such technological developments as 6G telecommunications and big data centers. The plan was in line with China’s 14th five-year plan from 2021 to 2025, reinforcing a similar directive issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

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