Tag: miit

Tencent, Huawei, and Baidu Executives to Join China’s New National Blockchain Committee to Set Industrial Standards

The Chinese central government has put together a national blockchain committee to work on setting industrial standards. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice on April 13 of the “Public Notice on the Formation of a National Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology Standardization Technical Committee.”

The committee would be made up of 71 individuals from different backgrounds, including political, industrial, academic, and research organizations. The committee will be chaired by MIIT deputy minister Chen Zhaoxiong, along with five vice-chairs, all of whom are government staff, including Di Gang, the vice-head of the Chinese central bank digital currency institute.

Other committee members include executives from well-known Chinese institutions, including Baidu, Tencent, Huawei, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, amongst others. The ministry is also asking for public feedback on the committee members until the deadline of May 12, 2020.

China’s take on blockchain

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in October 2019 that its nation should accelerate the development of blockchain technology. He highlighted that the application of blockchain technology has extended to digital finance, the internet of things, supply chain, and digital asset trading, amongst other areas. The president stressed that it is necessary to strengthen fundamental research of blockchain technology to enhance original innovation ability, for the nation to take a leading position in the blockchain industry.

China has also been researching the application of blockchain and artificial intelligence in cross-border financing, as the deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange in China announced that there are plans to use these technologies shortly after Facebook announced its plans for its Libra stablecoin. 

Huawei taking on the blockchain road

The Nanshan government of Shenzhen, in the southern Guangdong province in China, has recently announced an agreement with electronics giant Huawei Technologies to establish an information technology center, accelerating the application of technologies including blockchain, artificial intelligence in the district.

With joint efforts between the Nanshan government and Huawei will explore FinTech solutions and development to speed up the application of disruptive technologies. Financial applications, including banks, insurance, securities, and third-party payments, will also be explored based on Huawei’s Kunpeng structure.

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Chinese MIIT Issues Guidance on Blockchain Technology

China has issued guidelines for promoting the application of blockchain technology and industrial development.

According to the announcement, China’s Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has identified four main areas for applying blockchain technology.

This document introduces the basic principles and future development priorities of emerging technologies integrated with distributed networks, encryption technologies, smart contracts and other technologies in various provinces and cities in China.

The basic principles mainly focus on five aspects: application traction; innovation-driven, ecological cultivation; multi-party coordination; safety, and order.

Documents from the MIIT list the real economy, public services, industrial foundation, and modernisation as the main focus of the country’s blockchain development.

For the real economy, the Chinese government advocates making use of blockchain technology to optimise supply chain management and trace the source of food, medical, parts, and manufacturing products while sharing data to deepen the integration of applications at the same time.

In terms of building public services, the authority aims to promote the development of blockchain technology in the construction of smart cities and create a coordinated integration of government affairs systems with the people.

At the same time, the MIIT encourages the acceleration of the formulation of a standard system for blockchain technology to consolidate the industrial foundation. The intention is to develop a leading, high-quality enterprise after building a secure underlying platform. And carry out third-party quality evaluation and security risk assessment to construct a mature and self-disciplined industry that protects blockchain intellectual property rights.

While developing internationally competitive blockchain unicorn companies, the authority encourages establishing an open-source ecosystem, sharing blockchain resources, and jointly carrying out innovative research and development of blockchain-related products.

According to the Ministry of Information Technology, blockchain is one of the leading innovations, such as big data and artificial intelligence. It promotes blockchain integration with cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and the industrial Internet, vital to China’s development.

As part of its development goals, the MIIT requires establishing at least three key enterprises and blockchain industry clusters. The document also suggests strengthening international cooperation and exchange of the platform under the support of the “One Belt, One Road” policy.

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