Beijing Elevates "Intelligent Economy" — A New National Blueprint for AI and Infrastructure

What the report announced

It has been reported that Premier Li Qiang (李强) used the Government Work Report to put "智能经济新形态" — translated as an "intelligent economy new form" — on the national agenda for the first time, signalling a policy shift beyond the earlier "Internet+" and "Artificial Intelligence+" phases. The report calls for accelerating the cultivation of new drivers of growth: deepening "AI+", scaling commercialization of AI in key industries, promoting next‑generation smart terminals and intelligent agents, and fostering new AI‑native business models.

The plan is comprehensive. It includes support for open‑source AI communities, construction of ultra‑large‑scale computing clusters and "compute‑electricity" coordination, nationwide integrated compute monitoring and scheduling, backing for public cloud development, faster deployment of low‑earth‑orbit (LEO) satellite internet, and an upgraded "5G+ industrial internet." The report also emphasises data‑resource development, stronger data‑element governance, high‑quality dataset construction and improved AI governance — from infrastructure to real‑world application.

Why it matters — strategy, supply chains and scale

Officials and analysts say the language is deliberate. Chen Changsheng (陈昌盛), deputy director of the State Council’s research office, told a press briefing the new phrasing is meant to push AI from "chatting" to "doing" and to expand AI’s depth and breadth across industries so it can open new growth space and operational models. Zhu Keli (朱克力), founder of the National Institute for New Economy Research, characterized the intelligent economy as AI moved from an "add‑on" to an embedded core that binds data, compute, electricity and industry into a full‑chain ecosystem.

There are geopolitical overtones. Building domestic super‑scale compute clusters, promoting compute‑electricity coordination and fast‑tracking LEO satellite internet reduces reliance on constrained foreign supply chains and on export‑controlled advanced chips and cloud services. Market researcher IDC projects China's smart‑terminal shipments could exceed 900 million units by 2026 and active intelligent agents could top 350 million by 2031 — figures that help explain the sense of urgency. Reportedly, Beijing’s push aims both to capture commercial opportunity and to harden industrial resilience amid global tech competition.