NPC deputy vows greater efforts to advance homegrown blockchain innovation to support country's strategic development

Dong Jin, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress (NPC) and head of the Beijing Academy of Blockchain and Edge Computing (BAEC), pledged on Thursday to make greater efforts to further advance the homegrown blockchain technology and expand its role in supporting the country's digital economy and strategic development.

In the first group interview ahead of the opening meeting of the fourth session of the 14th NPC in Beijing, Dong outlined the latest progress in China's blockchain innovation and its expanding applications across key sectors.

The NPC, the country's supreme organ of state power, is holding its annual session from Thursday through March 12.

Dong said blockchain, as a cutting-edge information technology, plays a crucial role in ensuring the authenticity, credibility and traceability of data. Among the three core elements of artificial intelligence, namely, algorithms, computing power and data, blockchain helps guarantee trustworthy data, making it one of the most important digital infrastructures which underpins the development of the digital economy, he said.

"Our homegrown blockchain systems have already been deployed in 16 ministries, and 27 centrally administered state-owned enterprises. In the taxation sector, hundreds of billions of invoices issued nationwide each year are all processed on independent blockchain networks, ensuring every invoice is authentic, credible and traceable. In cross-border trade, independent blockchain systems connect key data across industries and regions in real time, exponentially improving customs clearance efficiency. More than 300,000 enterprises have already registered in the systems, with cross-border trade volume on the network reaching the trillion-yuan level," Dong said. Dong voiced his confidence in advancing blockchain performance and reliability, stressing that the technology must remain both trusted and globally connected to anchor China's digital future.

"The world's first 96-core blockchain acceleration chip, developed by my institute, can boost performance by 50 times. More importantly, this breakthrough resolves the computing bottleneck faced by ultra-large-scale blockchain networks, giving our country's trusted digital infrastructure a 'Chinese chip.' With expanding applications, a national blockchain network has taken shape, designed to secure high-value core data in areas such as cross-border trade and global payments within our independent blockchain system. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), we will remain committed to focusing on major national strategic needs to ensure that our country's core blockchain technologies continue to lead, and building a 'trusted digital Great Wall' that connects the nation and the larger world," said Dong.

NPC deputy vows greater efforts to advance homegrown blockchain innovation to support country's strategic development

A veteran agricultural scientist and deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, shared his decades-long mission to reduce the country's reliance on food imports and safeguard its food security by developing high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties.

Gao Derong, a researcher from the Lixiahe Regional Institute of Agricultural Sciences in east China's Jiangsu Province, detailed his relentless pursuit of better wheat varieties while taking a question at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing "two sessions", a major event in China's political calendar.

He has dedicated more than 30 years to wheat breeding and succeeded in the fight against Fusarium head blight, a serious fungal disease of cereals, including wheat and other small-grain crops, by implanting "disease-resistant genes" inside seeds.

"After 30 years of countless and repeated trials, we finally developed our first Fusarium head blight resistant variety in 2021. It exhibits strong disease resistance and high yield, with a yield of up to 600 kg per mu (0.066 hectare) in a demonstration plot. This means farmers can use fewer pesticides, produce more wheats, and secure a more stable harvest," said Gao.

Addressing the tight rotation schedule in the rice-wheat rotation system in south China, his team developed time-smart varieties like "Yangmai 25," which can be sown as late as December and still achieve a yield of 6,00 kg per mu.

"We have also cultivated a high-quality weak-gluten wheat variety tailored for biscuits and pastries, reversing China's long-standing reliance on imports. These grain varieties, like elite guard teams, help us hold our rice bowl firmly and contribute to securing our food security," Gao said.

As an NPC deputy, Gao extends his research from the lab to the field, gathering farmers' concerns alongside experimental data.

"My duty as a deputy is also written in the fields. 'Can we construct high-standard farmland at an accelerated pace?' 'Can we have more targeted agricultural subsidies?' These are the voices I often heard in the fields, which I carefully recorded like experimental data and transformed into suggestions," he said. Gao said he will continue working to enable the land to yield more grain, help farmers increase their incomes, and contribute to ensuring national food security.

This year's "two sessions," the annual meetings of China's top political advisory body and national legislature, opened in Beijing Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. As the world's second-largest economy embarks on the inaugural year of its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) period, these gatherings will serve both as a review of past achievements, and as a strategic compass guiding the nation's future development.

NPC deputy vows to fortify China's food security through seed innovation