China Targets 2030 to Complete National Blockchain Network

China has outlined a roadmap to implement new decentralized information technologies, pushing blockchain development front and center.

The Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) body that focuses on implementing cybersecurity and informatization policies, has featured blockchain as part of its “15th National Informatization Five-Year Plan,” setting up a roadmap that pushes the development of a national blockchain network as the country sets to modernize its information infrastructure.

The plan predicts that by 2030, current information structures will have progressed with the creation of a three-dimensional network system, the commercialization of the sixth generation of mobile communications, and the completion of the national blockchain network, with the acceleration of a smart internet layout.

In the plan, blockchain is part of a new industry ecosystem cultivated by Chinese authorities as a priority, alongside integrated circuits (ICs), display technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and 6G mobile communications.

Similarly, China’s informatization plan aims to improve the legal support for blockchain tech by developing and establishing national standards and seeking to extend these standards internationally.

The plan follows A CCP push towards establishing a national blockchain network to integrate its real and digital economies as part of the promotion of the “deep integration of scientific, technological and industrial innovation,” which adheres to the thought of President Xi Jinping’s “Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.”

While opposed to cryptocurrency, the People’s Bank of China has highlighted the relevance of blockchain technologies to “achieve one-stop online processing of cross-border electronic tax payment business.”

China’s push to implement decentralized technologies for different use cases follows a 2022 initial rollout of 15 pilot zones and 164 entities for blockchain projects, which would develop projects targeting manufacturing, energy, government and tax services, law, education, health, trade and finance, and cross-border finance.

If completed, China would be a pioneer in relying on a national blockchain backbone to organize its informational processes, potentially encompassing smart finance, property rights, and even ID registries under a national decentralized structure.