CHINA

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

China’s ambition is to become the world’s AI leader by 2030. This ambition is embedded in the country’s New Generation AI Development Plan, which was adopted by the State Council in 2017 and which envisions that the national AI industry would be worth USD$150 billion by 2030. The plan highlights a three-in-one approach to achieving AI leadership: promoting research and development, encouraging the uptake of AI applications across the public and private sectors, and fostering AI-related training and skilling. In line with this approach, the document outlines objectives and actions to be taken in a wide range of areas, including public administration (using AI to promote social governance intelligence), public safety, national security, and military applications. AI is already widely deployed across these and other sectors in China, including in the context of the country’s social credit system.

To create an enabling environment for the implementation of the plan, the Chinese government outlined a series of assurance measures: developing laws, regulations and ethical norms that promote the development of AI; implementing policies to support AI development (such as tax incentives, open data policies, and policies aimed at addressing the social problems brought by AI); and strengthening AI-related training for the labour force.

In addition to the AI Development Plan, other policy documents have been issued to support AI development, deployment, and standardisation. Examples include the Three-year Action Plan for Promoting Development of a New Generation AI Industry (2018–2020), the AI Security Standardization White Paper (developed by the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee) and the Biometric Recognition White Paper (published by the China Electronics Standardization Institute and the National Information Security Standardization Technical Committee).

Overall responsibility for the implementation of AI-related projects rests with the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is supported by other affiliated and non-affiliated bodies, such as the AI Strategy Advisory Committee, the New Generation AI Governance Expert Committee (involved in the development of a set of AI Governance Principles), and the AI Industry Development Alliance. The ministry is working in close co-operation with the private sector and has established a national AI team including companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, Megvi, and Tencent. These companies run the so-called national new AI open innovation platforms and are expected to contribute in areas such as research and development, sharing data and open-source software, and supporting AI entrepreneurship.

Beyond activities at the national level, China’s AI plan also notes that the country should deepen its engagement in international co-operation efforts related to AI laws, regulations, and international rules. China is contributing, for example, to the work of the Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems (GGE on LAWS), where it advocates for ‘the development of a legally binding protocol on issues related to the use of LAWS’.

5G

China is committed to supporting the development and deployment of 5G technologies, as indicated in several policy documents adopted in recent years. The Made in China 2025 plan – which is guiding the development of China’s manufacturing sector up to 2025 – lists 5G mobile communications among the strategic sectors supported by the government with a view of achieving major breakthroughs.

5G also features among the strategic emerging industries highlighted in the 13th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2016–2020). The plan emphasises China’s objectives to ‘drive forward research in key technologies for 5G mobile networks and ultra-wideband applications, and develop commercial applications of 5G technology’. In addition, the New Generation AI Development Plan lists 5G research and development among the objectives that will contribute to building a safe and efficient intelligence infrastructure to support AI development.

In line with these objectives, the government is supporting the roll-out of 5G across the country. It is also backing 5G-related research, development, and deployment activities of Chinese tech companies and network operators, including Huawei, China Mobile, and China Telecom. The country’s overall goal is to become one of the world’s largest 5G markets, which is expected to happen by 2025, according to an estimate by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (which predicts that the 5G market would value 1.1 trillion yuan/USD$155 million by 2025).

On the international scene, the involvement of Chinese companies in national 5G roll-out plans is perceived as a security risk by several countries, including the USA, Japan, and Australia. These countries argue that using 5G equipment from companies such as Huawei and ZTE could expose them to security risks if this equipment has a backdoor allowing the Chinese government to access sensitive data. China and the concerned companies are rejecting such claims.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

The Chinese government supports research and development in quantum computing and communications, which are included among the strategic sectors highlighted in the Made in China 2025 plan and the 13th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2016–2020). The New Generation AI Development Plan also indicates that the country is committed to exploring quantum intelligent computing theory, focused on quantum acceleration of machine learning methods, the establishment of high-performance computing and quantum algorithm hybrid models, and the development of highly efficient and accurate quantum AI system architecture.

Quantum computing is among the priority areas of various science and technology programmes and innovation centres developed or supported by national and regional authorities. Significant investments were allocated to the development of a National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences (with an initial funding of around USD$1 billion) and a multi-billion US dollar mega project aimed to achieve quantum breakthroughs by 2030.

BLOCKCHAIN

In a public statement made in October 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping noted that blockchain is an important breakthrough in technological innovations and that China needs to seize the opportunities presented by this technology.

National and local authorities are implementing blockchain solutions for various purposes and allocating funds to support blockchain projects. For example, China’s central bank – the People’s Bank of China – launched a blockchain platform for the finance trade in Shenzhen, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange uses a cross-border blockchain platform to facilitate the provision of certain financial services. The local government in the Guangzhou province announced an almost USD$150 million fund for outstanding blockchain projects

The central bank has been working on launching a national digital currency since 2014, when it formed a task force to carry research on digital currencies and established the Research Institute of Digital Currency. This has attracted significant interest at the international level, in the context of ongoing discussions (in frameworks such as G20 and G7) on the potential implications of central bank digital currencies (CDBCs) on financial and monetary systems.

INTERNET OF THINGS

Accelerating IoT research and development and making breakthroughs in industrial IoT are among the objectives outlined in the Made in China 2025 plan, as part of the country’s overall goal of ‘building an internationally competitive manufacturing sector’. In China’s view, competitive manufacturing can protect state security and help the country become a world power.

IoT also features in the New Generation AI Development Plan which outlines objectives such as improving the country’s IoT infrastructure, achieving breakthroughs in health-related IoT applications, developing intelligent vehicles, and developing a new generation of IoT to support the highly  sensitive and highly reliable intelligent sensor devices and chips.

Smart cities are also embedded in China’s strategic documents. The 13th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2016–2020), for example, outlines plans for ‘making full use of modern information technology and big data to develop a number of exemplary new-style smart cities, focusing on developing smart infrastructure, convenient public services, and refined social governance’.

China is implementing various policies aimed at achieving these goals, including the creation of IoT industrial clusters and the allocation of substantive financial support for research and development activities (including in the form of an IoT special plan). As a result, the country is now a global leader in IoT. In fact, in June 2019, the GSMA announced that China was the world’s largest IoT market: ‘Backed by proactive government support, China is now at the forefront in the development and mass deployment of innovative and transformative IoT-based solutions.’

In addition to smart city and industrial IoT applications, China is also fostering research and development concerning IoT military applications. Various research institutes and academic centres, such as the Beijing Key Laboratory of IoT Information Security Technology and the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

In parallel to focusing on speeding up IoT development and deployment at the national level, China is also actively engaged in international IoT standardisation processes.

ROBOTICS

As it is the case with other emerging digital technologies, China sees robotics as a potentially new area of economic growth and is adopting and implementing policies and strategies to foster research and development in this sector.

The 13th Five-year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2016–2020) envisions governmental support for the creation and development of national projects and regional innovation centres focused on robotics. The plan also notes that focus will be placed on the development of industrial, service, surgical, and military robots, and on the promotion of independence in the design and production of several parts and components used in robotics (such as high-speed controllers and high-performance servo motors).

The New Generation AI Development Plan explores the interplay between AI and robotics and highlights several priority areas to benefit from governmental backing, including intelligent autonomous robots for civilian and military use (e.g. service, industrial, space, marine, and polar robots) and support platforms for such robots. At the same time, the government is prioritising the development of safety and security standards for intelligent robots at the national level, while also contributing to international standardisation processes.

AUGMENTED/VIRTUAL REALITY

Augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) is listed among the emerging industries seen by China as having a potential to bolster the country’s economy. The country intends to support research and development focused on these technologies. For instance, the New Generation AI Development Plan indicates several areas of focus, such as the development of VR technologies and products to promote the integration of key industries, and the acceleration of innovation in VR applications aimed to promote social interaction and trust. Another goal for the Chinese government is to support local companies to become world leaders in AR/VR.

The country is also deploying AR/VR technology within the defence/military sector. For instance, in 2018 it deployed a VR training system for military personnel: Intelligent Commando VR Training Systems.