More than 7,800 water conservancy projects are being implemented at an accelerated pace in China with the support of additional bonds issued last year, laying a solid foundation for agricultural production and flood and drought prevention next year.
The Chinese central government issued 1 trillion yuan (about 140.42 billion U.S. dollars) in additional government bonds last year to support the rebuilding of disaster-hit areas and raise the country's disaster relief capabilities, with a focus on financing water conservancy projects.
Over 100 billion yuan (about 14.04 billion U.S. dollars) has been invested in water conservancy projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which was hit hard by flooding last year. This accounts for one quarter of the investment for all water conservancy projects nationwide financed by additional treasury bonds.
"China is stepping up implementation of water conservancy projects across the country, with a total of 410.94 billion yuan (around 57.71 billion U.S. dollars) being invested in more than 7,800 projects financed by additional government bonds. Over 15 billion yuan (around 2.1 billion U.S. dollars) has been invested in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Sichuan and other provinces in the country," said Yuan Hao, an official from the Ministry of Water Resources.
China steps up implementation of water conservancy projects backed by additional bonds
China's approval and issuance of its third medical device standard for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) marks a significant advancement from isolated breakthroughs to a systematic approach in this emerging field, contributing a Chinese solution to global BCI standardization.
Approved on Monday and set to take effect on September 1, 2027, this standard is the world's first product guideline for BCIs utilizing AI algorithms to process brainwave data. It will establish unified requirements for the collection, processing, labeling, storage, and access of brainwave data.
China first released its standard for BCI medical devices on September 16, 2025, establishing a systematic terminology framework for equipment based on BCI technology. This standard took effect on January 1, 2026. A second standard was introduced on September 28, 2025, focusing on test method for sensing and response performance of implantable nerve stimulators.
"The third BCI medical device standard released today enhances the conceptual framework established by the terminology standard and offers a data quality foundation for performance test and registration review of specific brain-computer interface products," said Li Shu, Deputy Director of the Institute for Medical Devices Control of the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, and a drafter of the standard.
The National Medical Products Administration is actively initiating and formulating a range of related standards, including 10 national standards and three industry standards. These efforts aim to create a comprehensive standards system covering terminology and definitions, paradigm design, data specifications, neural electrical signal acquisition and decoding, key performance testing, and reliability verification.
"The National Medical Products Administration has included implantable brain-computer interface medical devices in the Catalogue of High-End Medical Devices for Priority Examination and Approval, guiding enterprises in registration applications. At the same time, some products have been placed in the innovation and "global new" green approval channels, with full-process guidance to accelerate product launch," said Yuan Peng, Deputy Director of the Medical Device Registration Department at the National Medical Products Administration.
With robust policy support and technological advancements, China's BCI market is entering a rapid growth phase. Data predicts that China's BCI market will exceed 6 billion yuan (about 840 million U.S. dollars) by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 17.7 percent from 2024 to 2028. The global BCI medical application market will reach 40 billion U.S. dollars by 2030 and 145 billion U.S. dollars by 2040.
China advances global BCI framework with new standard for BCIs
