China is exploring the value of data as a factor of production to boost sustainable development, at a time when the emerging digital economy is creating new growth momentum through forging new production supply and consumer demand. China’s digital economy has shown five characteristics as the country works to accelerate the construction of a digital economy with data as the key element.
Digital infrastructure has improved. China had built 3.38 million 5G base stations by the end of 2023, up 46.1 percent year-on-year. Its scale of computing power had exceeded 230 EFLOPS, while the country reported 1.09 billion netizens at the end of 2023, elevating the internet penetration rate to 77.5 percent.
