China has entered a critical period of advancing large-scale applications of 5G technology almost three years after the country greenlighted the commercial use of 5G in 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said Monday. 

So far, a total of 1.615 million 5G base stations have been built across China, with 654,000 added in 2021, according to the MIIT. 

The nation's 5G network now covers all prefecture-level cities and county-level urban areas and 87 percent of township-level urban areas across the country, the MIIT said. 

China currently has more than 413 million 5G mobile phone users.

According to the MIIT, 2,400 "5G+industrial internet" projects are under construction, creating over 20,000 5G application scenarios.