China Moves to Build a National Blockchain Network
China’s top leadership has called for a national blockchain network, placing the technology alongside data infrastructure, industrial digitization and computing capacity in its new economic plan.
Key Takeaways
- China’s new policy calls for a national blockchain network.
- The document gives no operator, technical design, budget or timetable.
- Shanghai’s existing hub points to digital identity, privacy and data-verification services.
- The plan does not merge the network with the digital yuan.
Blockchain has entered China’s infrastructure plan
The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council issued their Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces on October 9. The policy focuses on strengthening technology-led industries and bringing the digital economy closer to manufacturing and other parts of the real economy.
Blockchain appears in the section covering data-property rules, data trading, national data infrastructure and manufacturing digitization. The document calls for smart manufacturing, industrial internet projects and the country’s “East Data, West Computing” programme before adding a direct instruction to build a national blockchain network.
Policy text
The policy calls for the construction of “a nationally integrated computing network and a national blockchain network.”
The phrase gives blockchain a place in China’s long-term infrastructure agenda. It also leaves the most practical questions unanswered: which body will operate the network, how participating systems will connect and which services will be brought on first.
The goal is public; the network’s design is still open
The document gives the destination without describing the system that will get China there. It does not identify a particular chain, require a token, name a node operator or set a deployment date.
- Established by the policy
- A national blockchain network is now a policy objective tied to data infrastructure, industry and the digital economy.
- Still undisclosed
- The operator, governance model, technical standards, node rules, budget, timetable and first applications.
- Why the gap matters
- Those details will show whether China connects existing regional platforms, builds a broader shared system or limits the network to selected public and industrial users.
Shanghai offers a starting reference
Shanghai already provides a concrete example of how Chinese authorities are approaching blockchain infrastructure. Its local project cannot establish the final national design, but it offers a useful view of the services now under development.
A hub built around trusted data
Shanghai’s official digital-economy plan says the city will strengthen construction of the National Blockchain Network’s Shanghai Hub. The plan names distributed digital identity, privacy computing and cross-chain services among its core capabilities.
It also points to practical users. Customs, tax, maritime and foreign-exchange authorities could connect verified information through onchain data-service centres. The plan describes systems that can authenticate approved records across institutions while using privacy and access controls around sensitive information.
That gives the national announcement a more concrete interpretation. China appears to be treating blockchain as infrastructure for identity, records and data coordination, areas where businesses and government bodies need to validate information across organisational boundaries.
The blockchain project has a different job from the digital yuan
China is separately expanding the digital yuan through banks, payment providers and cross-border settlement projects. That system concerns the distribution and movement of money, while the new blockchain-network policy is framed around data infrastructure and industrial digitization.
The October 9 document does not say that the national blockchain network will run e-CNY or replace its payment infrastructure. China’s recent expansion of digital-yuan banking access shows how those systems can develop on separate tracks, as covered in our report on China’s digital-yuan banking rollout.
A national network still needs rules, operators and use cases
A policy target alone cannot connect government databases, industrial systems and regional blockchain hubs. China will need to decide who runs the network, how participants join it and what data can move across its boundaries.
Governance
An agency, state enterprise or consortium would need responsibility for operating the network and approving participants.
Common standards
Digital identity, privacy, interoperability and node requirements would determine whether separate systems can work together.
Real-world services
Trade documents, public records, manufacturing data and financial information are possible uses, but the policy does not select the first deployments.
Links between existing hubs
The national project will need to connect regional systems in practice rather than leave them as separate local platforms.
China has made blockchain a national infrastructure objective. The next stage is turning that objective into common rules and services that institutions can actually use across regions and sectors.
This article is for informational purposes only. Details of China’s national blockchain-network plan may change as implementing rules and projects are announced.
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
