The State of China's Technological Development, According to Tech Minister
Plus: Unity China announces collaboration with Tencent Cloud
This week’s article focuses on two cloud and tech stories. Here’s a quick preview of both, in case you want to scroll down to one or the other:
Unity China announces a partnership with Tencent Cloud to collaborate on multiple initiatives, including a cloud-based market and the establishment of industry best practices.
China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology reflects on China’s economic and technological growth over the past decade.
This last piece isn’t strictly cloud-related. Instead, it’s a good resource for gaining context into China’s push for technological development and its most recent accomplishments in this regard. In essence, these initiatives are what China’s government-level use of cloud technology supports.
Unity China & Tencent join forces
On September 30, the official Weixin account of Unity China (a regional joint venture started by Unity in August) announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent Cloud in Shanghai.
Unity is best known for its work on the popular game engine of the same name, which it created and actively develops.
Here’s a snippet from the announcement giving some more context on why Unity and Tencent Cloud are working together:
In recent years, the digital economy has grown by leaps and bounds, and the fusion of the digital with reality has been elevated to a national strategy.
In its recently published White Paper on the “Complete Reality of Internet1,” Tencent showed the impact that a CRI system using technologies such as audio/video, digital twins, 3D engines, real-time rendering, and edge computing in promoting a digital-reality merge. Meanwhile, Unity has accumulated deep experience in the creation and operations of 3D content. Both parties have ample room for cooperation and can collaborate to create best practices for the industry.
According to the agreement, both parties will jointly establish an innovation center and create a cloud-based market revolving around digital assets.
In addition, both Unity China and Tencent Cloud will build a developer-facing cloud-based platform for education, practice, and training in the area of big data visualization. They aim to encourage greater cloud usage among developers.
The announcement also specifically states that the companies aim to jointly promote the creation of standards in the areas of digital twin and big data visualization technology.
Sources:
Unity WeChat account, Unity中国与腾讯云签署战略合作协议,加深行业数字化转型 (9/30/2022)
Jiemian, Unity中国与腾讯云签署战略合作协议 (9/30/2022)
MIIT head speaks on China’s “historic” recent technological achievements
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently announced via WeChat that the Study Times, a key newspaper of the Communist Party of China, had recently published an article by the agency’s newest head, Jin Zhuanglong.
Helpfully, it also published the article in its entirety, which is titled The New Era’s2 Developments in Industrialization and Informatization Have Brought About Historic Achievements”.
Overall, the piece presents a sweeping look at various trends in China’s modern growth. The original Chinese-language article is worth digging into if you have time. But if you don’t, here are the highlights, presented section by section as they appear in the article.
The final section, which is translated in full, discusses China’s recent breakthroughs in internet, data, and cloud.
Introduction
In the opening, Jin highlights the Party’s emphasis on concrete economic development since the 18th National Congress in 2012, particularly in the manufacturing industry, as well as its emphasis on informatization (citing the slogan “without informatization there is no modernization”) and internet (“strive to turn China into a great internet power”). These sentiments, Jin says, have served to light the way for China’s “high-quality development” in the areas of industry and informatization.
A steady industrial economy & growing international influence in manufacturing
The industrial economy maintained a mid-to-high rate of growth.
Jin hones in on the period between 2012 and 2012, which saw China’s industrial economy increase in value by 6.3% annually, maintaining about a 2% edge against the rest of the world despite setbacks from COVID beginning in 2020.
The scale and strength of manufacturing saw notable growth.
Key statistic: China’s manufacturing industry went from handling 22.5% of the world’s manufacturing to nearly 30% (2012 to 2021), remaining the world’s top manufacturer for 12 consecutive years.
China’s competitiveness in international industries moved up a notch.
Income from imports nearly doubled between 2012 and 2021 (12.9 trillion RMB to 21.7 trillion RMB). A significant amount of 2021’s sum included tech-dense machinery (12.8 trillion) and high-tech products (6.3 trillion).
Supply and value chains continued to grow tougher and more competitive. China’s industrial system became more complete.
China’s fundamental industrial abilities continued to grow.
Key fundamental products and materials achieved application at scale: e.g. gear-drive systems for high-speed trains.
24 national-level and joint national/local manufacturing innovation centers were established for work on automotive batteries and additive manufacturing, in addition to 223 provincial centers.
Key industry value and supply chains stayed stable and safe.
Jin references the recent chip and shipping container shortages, stating that China’s efforts to resolve these obstacles helped bring chip prices back to a stable rate, while also supporting the recovery of China’s auto industry and the stabilization of the international maritime shipping market.
Competitive industries grew stronger and more stable.
The solar and wind industries were called out in particular. Key statistic: China’s wind turbine output made up at least two-thirds of the overall global market.
China’s industrial system became more complete.
China is stated to be the sole country involved in each category in the UN’s International Standard Industrial Classification system (ISIC).
China’s ability to quickly produce vaccines, facemasks, protective clothing, and other medical equipment for both itself and other nations is cited as well.
Rising quality in the manufacturing industry and supply system rose notably, and a more optimized industrial structure was achieved.
The structure of industry in China saw qualitative changes.
From 2012 to 2022, the manufacture of electronics (such as computers) and automobiles took the lead over the previous top industry: ferrous metal smelting and calendering.
Standards for key consumer products reached 95% uniformity with international standards, marking both the rise of Chinese brands as well as their entry into the international market.
The rate of industrial transformation accelerated.
The manufacturing industry quickened its rate of digitalization, “intelligentization,” and internet integration.
Key industry enterprises saw a 30.7% rise in numerical control (automation) for crucial processes.
Coordination among industrial development areas further increased.
Coordinated strategies for development were initiated in key national regions, including the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Jing-Jin-Ji region (Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei Province), and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.3
Innovation in key areas saw groundbreaking achievements; China’s shift from manufacturing to innovation accelerated.
Innovation is the core of the manufacturing industry… We persevere in self-reliance in the fields of science and technology. Innovation is our primary motivation for development; it is at the heart of our industrial development.
Innovation in major technical equipment.
The Chang’e 5 lunar sample-return mission and Tianwen-1 probe are mentioned as essential examples of innovation, along with the Shandong, China’s first domestically built aircraft carrier.
Innovation in interchangeable and specialized equipment.
China’s Fuxing series of high-speed trains entered service, reaching speeds of 350 kilometers an hour.
China developed core components for industrial robots, breaking a foreign monopoly on these products.
IT, new materials, and biomedicine in the New Era.
Innovations include high-end chip design, chip packaging, BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, and the wide-range use of China’s domestic HPV vaccine.
High-quality manufacturing enterprises spurred deeper promotion of development; enterprises’ strength and competitiveness grew stronger.
Development expanded among large enterprises.
Large industrial enterprises’ assets rose from 38 trillion yuan in 2012 to 60.4 trillion yuan in 2021.
Development at small-to-medium enterprises (SME) continued to grow more vigorous and competitive.
The number of SMEs and the value of their collective assets doubled from 2012 to 2021.
Notable increases in enterprises’ ability to innovate.
Over 570 industrial enterprises were included among the world’s top 2,500 enterprises investing in research and development.
China built the world’s largest-scale and most technologically advanced internet infrastructure; information and communications industries achieved breakthrough levels of development.
(Note: Since this final section is the most directly relevant to Cloudology, I’ll include the content of this one in full.)
Speeding up the development of a safe, controllable, intelligent, and composite digital information infrastructure combining ubiquitous internet, satellite internet, cloud-internet integration, smart and nimble development, and green and low-carbon innovation. Unblocking the information artery for society’s development. These are all inevitable choices to make for seizing the opportunity of a new technological revolution and industrial transformation, advancing digital industrialization and industrial digitalization, and creating new momentum for development.
We have firmly grasped the evolutionary trends of information technology’s development; we have made thorough plans for development and safety; we have comprehensively implemented strategies for building a strong internet nation. The information and communications industries have achieved repeated advances. Strategic, fundamental, and pioneering qualities have become all the more prominent.
The world’s leading internet infrastructure.
China has built the world’s largest-scale and most technologically advanced fiber optic and mobile network, spanning 57,910,000 kilometers of optical cables. Fiber internet is available in every one of China’s prefecture-level cities. Fiber optic internet has achieved a thousandfold increase in bandwidth. Mobile internet has made one major step after another, from “breaking through” with 3G to “keeping step” with 4G and finally “leading the way” with 5G. A cumulative total of 6 million 4G base stations and 1,986,000 5G base stations have entered operation. Full 5G coverage has been achieved in all of China’s prefecture-level cities and all urban areas in county cities.
A historic achievement has been made by establishing broadband internet in every one of the nation’s administrative villages, contributing to the comprehensive accomplishment of the eradication of poverty. China’s internet infrastructure fully supports the IPv6 protocol. The number of direct connection points in the national-level internet backbone has increased from 3 to 19. The scale of China’s data centers exceeds 5,200,000 standard-sized racks, and the number of hyperscale data centers in China ranks second in the world.
Comprehensive industry strength increased by another notch.
Revenue for the information and communications industries increased steadily, and consumer numbers continued to rise. From 2012 to 2021, telecommunications revenue increased from 1.08 trillion to 1.47 trillion yuan, while mobile consumers increased from 1.11 billion to 1.643 billion. After starting from nothing, the number of 5G users reached 355 million — about three-quarters of the global total. The rate of internet popularization increased from 42.1% to 73%.
Industrial technology grew notably stronger; a portion of key technologies in the fields of mobile communications and fiber communications reached internationally advanced levels. A number of key leading enterprises rose to prominence; 9 Chinese internet enterprises were listed among the world’s top 30 by market value.
Internet applications accelerated their expansion from consumer domains to manufacturing.
Internet applications such as e-commerce, remote work, remote medicine, and online education spread comprehensively throughout the country. Annual mobile payment transactions reached the scale of 527 trillion yuan per year. 5G, industrial internet, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence saw increasing usage in industrial manufacturing, ports, and mines, with over 50,000 total use cases. New technologies, new formats, and new patterns saw vibrant development, empowering notable achievements across businesses and industries. These advancements spurred the vigorous development of the digital economy and imbued social and economic development with powerful momentum.
Conclusion
The final paragraph is filled with standard government sentiments expected from a top Chinese official (e.g. urging readers to persevere under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought and understanding the meaning of the “Two Establishes,” etc.). Below is a trimmed version with some tech-relevant statements left intact:
To reflect on the past, these splendid achievements raise one’s spirits. Looking into the future, the heavy load and long road ahead are a source of inspiration. We must…persevere along the path of a new kind of industrialization with Chinese characteristics and tirelessly strive to advance the work of building a strong manufacturing nation and a strong internet nation, and to put forth new and even greater contributions toward comprehensively establishing a modernized socialist nation and realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people.
Source: MIIT WeChat account, 工业和信息化部党组书记、部长金壮龙《学习时报》撰文:新时代工业和信息化发展取得历史性成就 (10/2/2022)
For more context on the Complete Reality of Internet (全镇互联网), which will be referred to as CRI here on, check out this summary of a Sina Tech report on a relevant Tencent announcement from this past February.
This “new era” (新时代), more specifically the “new era of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics,” was announced by Xi Jinping in 2017.
As one example, these areas are all involved in the major “Eastern Data, Western Computing” project, which I previously covered.