Beijing Wants To Be 'Digital China' With 'World-Leading Levels' Of Tech By 2035: CCP

China has unveiled a major plan to accelerate digital development in the country, as it aims to reach "world-leading levels" by 2035.

A roadmap released by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and the State Council revealed that the country plans to build a "digital China" by accelerating the development of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), data centers and supercomputing technologies, the South China Morning Post reported.

The grand digitalization plan sets out guidelines and a timeline for China's digital construction.

According to the plan, China aims to make significant progress in digitalization by 2025 and enter the forefront of the world in terms of digital development by 2035.

The State Council said that digital infrastructure and data resources will be the main foundations of the plan.

China intends to ramp up the building of 5G networks and gigabit optical networks, which will be essential for the development of IoT and the extensive application of the Beidou satellite navigation system, China's version of GPS.

China's State Council also called for the establishment of a national data management system to get the most out of the country's massive amount of data.

In an interview with the Chinese state-run Global Times, Pan Helin, co-director of the Research Center for Digital Economics and Financial Innovation at Zhejiang University, said the roadmap "further refines and clarifies" the direction of China's digital economy.

"The document is directional, as it further refines and clarifies the development direction of the digital economy from the aspects of infrastructure construction, digital capabilities and the development environment," Pan said.

With more than 1 billion internet users and nearly 1 billion smartphone users, China has already made investments in building its digital presence.

The Asian superpower has built 2.312 million 5G base stations, of which 887,000 were rolled out just last year, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China's Henan province, home to the world's biggest iPhone factory, has unveiled a $7.19 billion digital infrastructure expansion program to support its manufacturing sector.

In 2021, the value of China's digital economy reached 45.5 trillion yuan ($6.45 trillion), accounting for 39.8% of its GDP.

IDC, a market intelligence firm, said it was predicted that Chinese investment in digital solutions is expected to see a massive increase within the next five years, according to SCMP.

However, a Beijing research fellow warned that China could face some bottlenecks in realizing its plan.

Wang Peng, a research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, also told the Global Times that the unbalanced development among regions and industries may create a digital divide.