China aims to become internet superpower by 2050
‘Three-step’ strategy focuses on domestic technology development
China, with 700 million mobile internet users, has rolled out a “three-step” strategy that aims to transform it into a leading cyberpower by the middle of this century.
A national informatization plan issued on Wednesday pledged to have an “impregnable” cyber system in 2025 by building up a group of globally competitive multinational companies and world-class mobile communications networks.
While China’s latest grand blueprint, with a focus on domestic technology development, is not in full harmony with an open and free Internet, it lays out the ambitions of Beijing – which on one hand allows an exuberant commercial use of the internet and on the other runs one of the world’s harshest online policing systems – to make information technology subject to its economic and social agendas.
The comprehensive plan, which will serve as a guideline for future policymaking, is also an articulated document of the vision of the internet and “cyberspace sovereignty” that President Xi Jinping promoted at a major internet forum in Wuzhen, China, last year.
According to the plan, the country should become a leader in some key technologies in information and communications by 2020. Breakthroughs in 5G-related technologies are expected by the same time.