China releases 5-year development plan for information, communications

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Monday issued a development plan for the information and communications industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) to promote high-quality development of the sector.

By 2030, a new-generation communications network with comprehensive coverage and leading performance is expected to be fully established, according to the plan, while efforts will be made to accelerate the development of a technologically advanced, secure and controllable information and communications industrial system.

Meanwhile, an agile and efficient governance system integrating technology and management is expected to be effectively established, and network and data security capabilities featuring all-domain coordination and practical application will be significantly enhanced, the plan indicates.

The industry's empowerment level and degree of globalization will be further improved, laying a solid foundation for basically achieving modernization of the information and communications sector by 2035, according to the plan.

The plan also outlines 13 key indicators, including achieving information and communications industry revenue of 4.1 trillion yuan (about 604.8 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030, cumulative investment of 3.8 trillion yuan in information infrastructure, and an average annual growth rate of 7 percent in total telecommunications business volume.

By 2030, there will be 50 5G (including 5G-A) base stations per 10,000 people, intelligent computing power will reach 9,800 EFLOPS, and the 5G user penetration rate will reach 95 percent, the ministry said.

EFLOPS, or ExaFLOPS, is a unit of computing performance, with each unit representing 1 quintillion floating-point operations per second.

The plan also proposes promoting the deep integration of satellite and terrestrial networks, calls for developing 6G base stations and 6G smartphones, and strengthening standards systems in key information and communication areas such as optical communications, computing networks and quantum communication.

China releases 5-year development plan for information, communications

Chen Wenqing, a senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), met with Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov on Thursday in Beijing.

Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, said this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination.

It is hoped that the two sides will implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, step up exchanges and cooperation in judicial training for judges and the application of artificial intelligence in justice, improve the quality and effectiveness of cross-border judicial assistance, and strengthen collaboration on multilateral rule-of-law platforms, Chen said.

Krasnov said the Russian side stands ready to deepen judicial exchanges and cooperation between the two countries to serve the high-level development of bilateral ties.

Senior CPC official meets chief justice of Russia