In a chaotic technology war with the US, China is going all out on computing power

The calls for urgent action by senior Chinese officials reflect how Beijing is working to strengthen the nation’s technological self-sufficiency as US President Joe Biden’s administration steps up public restrictions. technology to block China’s technological progress and economic development.

“Computational power is now the foundation of digitalization,” Jin Zhuanglong, head of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said at a forum Saturday in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

With more than 41% of economic output generated from the digital economy, China has the world’s second-largest computing capacity, after the United States.

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To catch up, the world’s second-largest economy must accelerate the construction of national computing hubs and data centers while accelerating the pace of technological breakthroughs, Jin added.

In the eyes of MIIT Deputy Minister Zhang Yunming, computing power is now the strategic focus of the world’s major economies, and it is driving a new wave of technological and industrial revolution.

“Global competition for data and computing power has increased significantly, with major countries increasingly deploying strategies in the computing and computing power industries,” he said at the same forum. mathematics, aiming to gain a leading position in future global competition”.

“China must strengthen systematic innovation and firmly grasp core technologies,” he added, noting that policies will soon be implemented to strengthen the development of physical computing infrastructure. high quality without providing additional information.

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Biden is freezing out the Chinese tech industry

Biden is freezing out the Chinese tech industry

But Beijing’s AI ambitions are facing hurdles as the US government seeks to limit Chinese companies’ access to US cloud computing services, which would bar mainland customers Use the power of advanced AI chips.

The China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, an organization affiliated with MIIT, estimates that every yuan spent on increasing computing power will boost China’s gross domestic product by 3 to 4 yuan (41 – 55 US cents).

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As of the end of June, China boasted a nationwide data center infrastructure of more than 7.6 million standard server racks in operation, and these have helped China gain speed Average annual growth in computing power is nearly 30% over the past 5 years. , according to Zhang.

China also established the Central Science and Technology Commission this year to further strengthen the field. It operates under the Ministry of Science and Technology and is seen as a key part of Beijing’s plan to counter US-led efforts to contain China technologically.

The commission is expected to spearhead national plans for science and research, as well as enhance civil-military technology development.

The government said the commission will promote the creation of a “national innovation system”, review key strategies for the sector and address key issues in the sector.