China’s Communist Party leadership and State Council have called for the construction of a national blockchain network, placing it inside a broader industrial-policy push to connect digital infrastructure with the country’s manufacturing base and wider economy.
The official guidelines, issued on October 9, lay out 19 measures for developing what Beijing calls “new quality productive forces,” a policy term centered on technological innovation, industrial upgrading and higher productivity.
The blockchain plan is one piece of a larger digital push
Measure nine calls for a national blockchain network alongside a nationally integrated computing-power network. The same section proposes improving systems for data ownership, market trading and rights protection, while expanding manufacturing digitization, smart manufacturing and the industrial internet.
The document also calls for implementing China’s “AI Plus” initiative across traditional industries, strengthening the supply of computing power, algorithms and data, and creating national pilot bases for industrial AI applications. Reuters reported that the guidelines pair that expansion with monitoring, risk-warning and emergency-response systems intended to keep AI “safe, reliable and controllable.”
Key implementation details remain unspecified
The policy does not name a budget, construction timetable, technical architecture or operator for the blockchain network. It also does not connect the project to Bitcoin, public cryptocurrencies or a national crypto-trading system.
That distinction matters because early social-media posts framed the policy as a major step for blockchain adoption or “on-chain” finance. The official text is narrower: it treats blockchain as one part of national data infrastructure and the integration of the digital and real economies.
The guidelines also warn officials not to create speculative bubbles, encourage blind investment or allow new industries to pull activity away from the real economy. Officials responsible for major losses caused by poorly planned investment could be held accountable, the document says.
