China has invested massive resources to build digital infrastructure and plans an even stronger push in the future

China has vowed an even stronger push to entrench digital infrastructure’s role as an economic growth engine, after a rapid 5G roll-out in recent years that has helped lift its computing power to the world’s No 2 ranking, trailing only the US.

In the five years to June this year, the number of 5G base stations in China had grown fivefold to 4.55 million and the number of gigabit broadband users had risen 34-fold to 226 million, substantially lifting the country’s computing power, Liu Liehong, the director of the National Data Bureau, told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday that focused on China’s achievements in digital infrastructure development.

But the country’s data infrastructure development is still in its early stages and it will continue to deploy large-scale facilities and foster a market-driven ecosystem to support the digital economy and scientific and technological innovation, bureau deputy director Xia Bing said at the same news conference.

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