President Xi Jinping wants improved regulations of digital economy in China

The Chinese digital economy and companies operating in the space have in recent times come under scrutiny as China looks to clean up its digital economy. In an essay in the ruling Communist Party's publication Qiushi on Saturday, President Xi Jinping asked for improved regulations and governance of China’s digital economy to safeguard against “unhealthy” developments, said a recent report on Reuters.

According to the report, Xi said China should "cultivate a number of enterprises with international competitiveness” to “create world-class digital industry clusters". Xi also said regulations must be in place to prevent "monopolies and disorderly expansion of capital”.

He added that over the course of the massive growth and development, the Chinese digital economy unfortunately “displayed some unhealthy and irregular seeds and trends” and said these matters not only hamper the development of the digital economy, but also “violate laws and regulations and pose a threat to national economic and financial security".

Meanwhile, a recent report on SCMP also reported that China will look to set international standards for 6G research and development for the sixth-generation mobile communications technology, according to Beijing’s latest digital economy plan.

According to the plans, by 2025, China wants its digital economy to be in full expansion mode, with the added value of core industries in the digital economy accounting for 10% of GDP. Meanwhile, digital innovation should play a bigger role in leading economic development with significant progress in the intelligent level and integration between digital technology and the real economy.

A better digital economy governance system and a more competitive digital economy are also expected, according to the circular. According to the plan, efforts will be made to accelerate the construction of the information network infrastructure, and a national-level integrated big data center system coordinating computing power, algorithms, data, and application resources.

The plan also emphasised industrial digital transformation. To accelerate digital transformation and upgrading in enterprises, qualified large-scale enterprises will be encouraged to build integrated digital platforms.

The circulator also stressed enhancing innovation of key technologies in strategic and forward-looking fields such as quantum information, network communications, integrated circuits, key software, big data, artificial intelligence, block-chain, and new materials, among others.

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