Turning to technology. 3GPP, the organization that governs cellular standards, officially signed off on the complete first-phase 5G standard on Thursday. The approval is a giant step closer to the technology's full commercial application. Lily Lyu tells us more.

The 3GPP unveiled details about the standards for the 5G mobile communication during a meeting in San Diego, California. The new documents added stand-alone 5G standards to the non-stand-alone standards approved by the organization in December. Having a formally agreed-upon protocol for what 5G networks will actually look like is a huge step forward for getting commercial 5G networks up and running. That's because the protocol gives companies a hard guideline for what they need to be building.

Government data shows that the number of Chinese cellphone users expanded to around 1.4 billion last year. China is already considering strategies to fully take advantage of that massive market potential.

WEN KU, DIR. OF COMMUNICATIONS MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY & INFORMATION TECH. "We will focus on cross-sector cooperation. On one hand, we will step up integration between 5G, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. That is aimed at setting up a much smarter commutation network. On the other hand, we will expand 5G application into new areas including healthcare, environmental protection, and transportation."

Market watchers estimate the immediate economic output of 5G applications globally will reach over 480 billion yuan in 2020. That number is likely to jump to 3.3 trillion yuan in 2025 and 6.3 trillion in 2030. We can only expect that more tech firms will join China in jostling for the attention of 5G users.