China is betting big on emerging technologies to boost its digital economy over the next three years. The country is looking at 6G even as large swathes of the world is yet to roll out 5G. It aims to have its digital economy contribute 10 percent towards its gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025, which it is hoping to do by pushing further in next-generational technology. The digital economy contributed 7.8 percent to the GDP in 2020.

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China’s State Council, its chief administrative authority, released a document outlining its goals for the country’s digital economy, reported CNBC. The document sets more specific targets for China’s digital economy.

The country is expecting to see online retail sales hit 17 trillion yuan in 2025, up from 11.76 trillion yuan in 2020. In terms of IT services, China is expecting the sector to grow to 14 trillion yuan in 2025 from 8.16 trillion yuan in 2020.

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As part of the 14th Five Year Plan, China’s increasingly aggressive foray into digital technologies sees the world’s second-largest economy pit itself against the behemoth US economy.

China has been increasingly pushing for self-reliance in several critical technologies, like semiconductor manufacturing, over its continuing tensions with the US and its allies. China even released a list of seven “frontier technologies,” which it would be focusing on last year.

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But while telecommunications is not one of the technologies on the list, the world’s most populous nation is increasing its investments into research and development into the 6G or sixth-generation internet network. While 5G rollout has not even started in many countries in the globe, China had already been laying the groundwork for the next generation of telecommunication networks in 2019.

It must be noted that China’s digital push comes just months after its crackdown on large IT companies led to around $3 trillion being wiped off the market in September 2021. China had gone on a warpath to ensure that its tech companies would start to tow the party line, after the tech boom in China saw several Chinese businessmen become power billionaires and business magnates.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)