China plans to build 600,000 5G base stations across the country this year, bringing the total number to over two million, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The country currently has 1.85 million 5G base stations, of which 300,000 were built in the second quarter of this year, said Wang Peng from the MIIT's Bureau of Information and Communications Administration.

The integrated application of 5G and gigabit optical networks has been promoted to areas of industries, medical care, education and transportation at a faster pace, Wang said, adding that the number of 5G applications has surpassed 20,000.

China has been carrying forward the promotion of 5G+industrial internet with more than 3,100 related projects under construction, including 700 new projects in the second quarter.

Development in new energy vehicles

Technological breakthroughs have been made in new energy vehicles.

Tian Yulong, chief engineer at the MIIT, said at the press conference that newly developed laser radars, domestic chips and vehicle-based computing platforms have all been applied on cars.

The energy density for a mass-produced ternary battery reached the world's highest 300 watt-hour/kg and cobalt free battery reached 240 watt-hour/kg, Tian said.

In the first half of this year, China built 1.3 million electricity charging facilities, 3.8 times more than the same period last year, and more than 10,000 battery recycling service points have been built, Tian said.