China’s New National Data Infrastructure Blueprint: Shaping the Digital Future

The National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "National Data Infrastructure Construction Guideline" to implement the Party’s directive on building and operating a national data infrastructure and promoting data sharing.

Foreword

Since the 18th Party Congress, China has pursued digital economic development, recognizing data as a key production factor. The new guideline clarifies the concept, development vision, and construction goals of the national data infrastructure, aiming to support a unified data market and strengthen the digital economy.

1. Conceptual Definition

National data infrastructure provides services for data collection, aggregation, transmission, processing, circulation, utilization, operation, and security. It integrates hardware, software, algorithms, standards, and mechanisms, forming a coordinated system of regional, industry, and enterprise data facilities.

2. Development Vision

The vision includes building a trustworthy data flow system, an efficient computing base, a high‑speed transmission network, and a dynamic security framework. By 2029, a basic national data infrastructure with horizontal connectivity, vertical integration, and coordinated operation is expected.

3. Core Functions

The infrastructure supports eight capabilities: data collection, aggregation, transmission, processing, circulation, utilization, operation, and security. It enables low‑cost, high‑efficiency, trustworthy data flow across sectors such as e‑commerce, finance, logistics, agriculture, healthcare, and more.

4. Overall Architecture

It consists of a technical architecture and major components, including data flow facilities, computing facilities, network facilities, and security facilities. The architecture diagram is shown below.

5. Key Directions

Build a data flow utilization foundation with unified catalog, identity, and interface standards.

Develop an efficient computing supply system, promoting heterogeneous, green, and secure computing resources.

Establish trustworthy data circulation mechanisms, including blockchain and privacy‑preserving computation.

Create convenient data delivery platforms for trading and cross‑domain exchange.

Promote industry‑specific data application ecosystems.

6. Computing Base

Accelerate the layout of general, intelligent, and super‑computing resources, promote east‑west computing collaboration, and integrate computing with data and algorithms for AI model training.

7. Network Support

Construct a high‑speed data transmission network, support 5G‑A evolution, develop 6G research, and deploy satellite‑based internet to ensure reliable, low‑latency connectivity.

8. Security Protection

Implement a multi‑layered, dynamic security framework covering the entire data lifecycle, including access control, encryption, intrusion detection, and privacy‑preserving technologies such as secure multi‑party computation and blockchain.

9. Organizational Guarantees

Strengthen policy support, accelerate technology innovation, and build standards and talent pipelines. Establish a unified data catalog, identity system, and credential mechanisms, and encourage public‑private partnership and international standard participation.

Appendix: Technical Terminology

Key technologies include privacy‑preserving computation, blockchain, and data usage control, which enable secure, trustworthy, and controllable data flow and utilization.