Fuzhou, April 27 (Xinhua) — Reporters Dong Jianguo and Wang Sibei
Cao Shumin, Deputy Head of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and Deputy Director of the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, released the Digital China Development Report (2022) on April 27 at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Digital China Summit.
The report states that China’s digital economy reached RMB 50.2 trillion in 2022, firmly ranking as the world’s second-largest and accounting for 41.5% of the country’s GDP—highlighting its role as a key engine for stabilizing growth and driving transformation.
According to the report, China has significantly upgraded the scale and capacity of its digital infrastructure. By the end of 2022, the country had activated 2.312 million 5G base stations and served 561 million 5G subscribers—each representing more than 60% of the global total. Additionally, China became the first major economy in the world to achieve “more connected devices than people,” with 1.845 billion mobile Internet-of-Things (IoT) terminal users.
The report also notes accelerated progress in building China’s data resource system. In 2022, the nation generated 8.1 zettabytes (ZB) of data—an increase of 22.7% year-on-year—accounting for 10.5% of the global total and ranking second worldwide.
Meanwhile, digital culture is injecting new momentum into cultural prosperity. Cultural institutions are rapidly digitizing, significantly enhancing digital service capabilities for nationwide reading initiatives and arts education. China now has 530 million digital reading users. Online cultural creation is also gaining vitality, with leading online literature platforms hosting over 30 million original works nationwide.
Cao Shumin outlined priorities for 2023, stating that China will accelerate the construction of Digital China by:
- Strengthening foundational digital infrastructure and unblocking major arteries of digital connectivity;
- Facilitating a robust circulation of data resources;
- Fully empowering economic and social development—by further expanding and optimizing the digital economy, advancing efficient and integrated digital government services, fostering a confident and thriving digital culture, building an inclusive and convenient digital society, and promoting a green, intelligent digital ecological civilization;
- Enhancing core capabilities for Digital China—by establishing a self-reliant and innovative digital technology system and reinforcing a trustworthy, controllable digital security framework;
- Optimizing the environment for digital development—by cultivating a fair and standardized digital governance ecosystem and shaping an open, cooperative, and mutually beneficial international landscape for digital collaboration.
