Science and Technology Daily:

The 20th CPC National Congress made a strategic plan for moving faster to boost China's strength in cyberspace, emphasizing the building of a modern infrastructure system. What considerations does the MIIT have in the acceleration of the construction of the next-generation information infrastructure such as 5G, gigabit fiber optic networks, and mobile IoT? Thank you.

Tian Yulong:

Thank you for your question. The Party Central Committee and the State Council have always attached great importance to this issue and have also made strategic arrangements on the construction of new types of infrastructure. With the joint effort of various departments and localities, the construction of new types of infrastructure, such as 5G, gigabit fiber optic networks, and mobile IoT, as you mentioned, has been gaining steam and achieved remarkable results.

In terms of building 5G networks, we have established the world's largest and leading 5G networks. We have more than 2.31 million 5G base stations. The 5G networks cover all prefecture-level cities and all county seats across China. With the continuous improvement of applications and facilities, the supply capacity of 5G networks has also been continuously enhanced, playing a leading role in building a complete industrial chain which covers systems, chips, and terminals. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, we will continue to increase the depth and breadth of 5G network coverage, further deepen joint construction and sharing of networks, and vigorously promote the integration of 5G technology and its product applications into all walks of life in our economy and society. Moreover, it is necessary to promote the deep integration of "5G plus Industrial Internet" into the manufacturing industry and expand it to all links of production in order to improve the overall level of digitalization, networking, and intelligence in the manufacturing sector.

Regarding the development of 1000M fiber optic networks, we have realized 1000M network coverage in all cities, broadband connections in all villages, and 5G coverage in all counties. The 1000M fiber optic networks already have the capacity to cover over 500 million households, a world-leading figure. The project to channel more computing resources from China's eastern areas to its less developed yet resource-rich western regions is in full swing, gradually building a computing power infrastructure application system that will enable the less developed regions to handle and store data transmitted from the economically advanced areas.

The total number of standard data center racks in service in China has exceeded 6.5 million, and servers have surpassed 20 million, ranking second in the world in terms of total computing power. In the future, we will launch a "Light Chasing Action" of 1000M fiber optic networks to boost the collaborative innovation of cross-industry, cross-enterprise, and cross-regional networks and encourage digital, internet-based and intelligent transformation of traditional industries. We will strive to achieve the coordinated and balanced development of information and communication networks in small and medium-sized cities and remote rural areas, promote the infrastructure construction of broadband access services in border regions and urban cloud networks in small and medium-sized cities, and thereby allow modern information technology to benefit all our people. At the same time, we will step up efforts to encourage the empowerment of computing infrastructure and build a network structure and computing power supply system that integrates cloud and networks and converges computing and networks.

Regarding the mobile Internet of Things (IoT), China has built the largest mobile IoT in the world, with 1.845 billion connections, accounting for more than 70% of the global total. China has become the first major economy in the world with more connected things than people. The mobile IoT has been widely applied to digital city construction, smart manufacturing and transportation, and mobile payments. We all have a deep understanding of this. It has facilitated our lives and changed our way of life.

In the future, we will leverage the enabling role of network, take the application-driven, market-oriented, and policy-motivated approach and further promote the full development of mobile IoT. We will continue to consolidate the leading edge of our network capabilities and build IoT connectivity that supports the integration of fixed and mobile IoT and the combination of broadband and narrowband IoT. We will continue to expand IoT application scenarios into various industries and fields and further deepen the integration of the IoT with various industries so as to support the construction of Digital China and smart cities and make our information infrastructure more beneficial to the people and social development. Thank you.

Jin Zhuanglong:

Let me give an update on 6G development, which may be of interest to you. We have constantly reviewed the experience of 5G development and encouraged the industry to set up an IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, which is expected to offer a platform for industry, research institutes and telecom operators to promote the integrated development of production, teaching, research and application, and boost international cooperation exchanges and technology development. Thank you.