With more than 2.31 million 5G base stations covering all prefecture-level cities, counties and urban areas nationwide, China has built the largest 5G network in the world, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China on Wednesday. 

The country will continue to promote 5G application in various industries and boost integrated development of 5G technologies and the industrial internet, as the country makes solid progress in expanding the application scenarios of the 5G+industrial Internet sector, an important driving force to empower digitalization and intelligent transformation, Tian Yulong, chief engineer and spokesman for MIIT, said at a press conference on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, in terms of China's 6G development, the chief engineer said that China has created an IMT-2030 (6G) promotion group for the sector's industrial production, education, research and application. The group consists of domestic and international companies, universities and research institutes.

As early as June 2019, the group was established under the guidance of MIIT as the flagship platform in China to promote 6G research and development as well as international cooperation. And China has issued a series of white papers regarding the launch of technological tests on 6G. 

Industrial progress over past decade

China has made significant progress in the development of its industrial sector over the past 10 years, with further consolidation of its status as a major manufacturing power and a country with extensive cyber presence, said Jin Zhuanglong, Minister of MIIT. 

"The industrial system (of the country) has become more complete. China now boasts 41 major industrial categories, grouping 207 at the medium level and 666 at the low level,” he said, adding that China is the only country in the world that has all industrial categories defined in the United Nations industrial classification. 

In the meantime, the country's industrial structure has kept improving. The share of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing that were value added of the entire industrial sector accounted for 15.5 percent and 31.8 percent respectively last year, up from 9.4 percent and 28 percent a decade ago. 

China has also yielded a series of landmark innovation achievements in key fields, with the establishment of 24 national-level manufacture innovation centers. Other major progresses include the country's many manned space missions, its homegrown jetliner C919 and a large number of 5G-related patents, according to Jin.