China's Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council have called for the establishment of a national blockchain network in a new policy document designed to accelerate the growth of the country's digital economy. The opinion was published by Xinhua News Agency on Oct. 9. The Central Committee is the Communist Party's top leadership body and the State Council is China's cabinet, so an opinion issued jointly by the two sets direction for departments across the government.

The document sets out 19 measures to develop technology-led industries and seeks to connect the digital economy more closely with real-world production. Its scope extends beyond blockchain to artificial intelligence, quantum computing and new rules for data ownership and trading. According to Xinhua, the plan aims to integrate blockchain into manufacturing, banking and data sharing.

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What the Policy Includes

The opinion places the call for a national blockchain network in a section devoted to linking the real economy and the digital economy. Alongside it, the document calls for the construction of an integrated national computing power network.

Other items in the section include smart manufacturing, industrial internet projects and the “East Data, West Computing” program, which shifts computing demand from China's industrialized east to data centers in the energy-rich west. The policy backs businesses that adopt digital tools as well as companies that supply digital products.

On data, authorities were told to improve rules on who owns data and how it is traded. The document also calls for pilot projects that treat data as an economic resource and proposes an open, shared and secure data market, including ways to move data across borders more efficiently. Those ownership and trading rules form the groundwork for the data market and cross-border flows the document envisions.

The policy also covers artificial intelligence and future industries. It calls for the full rollout of the “Artificial Intelligence+” action plan and names AI phones and computers, intelligent vehicles and humanoid robots as areas to speed up. Authorities were also asked to draw up a proactive plan for future industries such as quantum computing, including exploring market rules for those sectors, to make use of existing fiscal policy and to encourage long-term private investment. Because those plans and market rules are yet to be drawn up, follow-up policy documents will show how the directives are put into practice.

Earlier Blockchain and Digital Yuan Steps

The new policy builds on a series of steps China has already taken to apply blockchain in business finance. In April, the State Administration of Taxation and the National Financial Regulatory Administration encouraged blockchain-based tax data sharing, with the aim of helping banks assess small business borrowers.

The digital yuan has also grown. On Aug. 17, the People's Bank of China approved eight more banking operators, raising the total from 22 to 30. The new operators include Ping An Bank, Hengfeng Bank and Bank of Shanghai, and customer services depend on each bank finishing its technical preparations, meaning users will see the expanded list only as institutions complete that work. In January, the central bank made verified digital yuan wallets eligible to earn interest, and qualifying balances now fall under deposit insurance. In Guangdong, a plan covering 2026 to 2030, still in draft form, includes cross-border digital yuan trials in the province's free trade zone. In July, ICBC branches in Shanghai and Singapore settled nearly 10 million yuan in shipping fees through a digital currency platform.

Crypto trading and mining remain restricted in China. A February notice extended oversight to stablecoins and tokenized assets, requiring authorization to issue offshore renminbi-pegged stablecoins while keeping limits on virtual currency businesses and mining. The restrictions frame how the new policy should be read: it advances blockchain and the digital yuan as state-backed tools while leaving limits on crypto trading and mining in place.

The latest development came on Oct. 9, when Xinhua published the policy opinion formally calling for the national blockchain network, alongside the national computing power network and the broader set of digital economy measures.