New MIIT Guidelines – China’s Industrial Internet Standardization Trends to 2035

On 29 June 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the National Development and Reform Commission, and six other ministerial-level departments jointly issued the. Implementation Opinions on Pushing the High-Quality Development of Industrial Internet. The document sets development targets for 2030 and 2035, with standardization identified as a cross-cutting priority across multiple policy areas.

The Implementation Opinions’ targets echo the second-phase objectives in the State Council’s 2017 Guiding Opinions on “Deepening the Internet Plus Advanced Manufacturing” and “Developing the Industrial Internet”. According to MIIT’s statistics, China has already over-achieved the 2025 goals set out in the 2017 policy. The new document now fleshes out the next two phases with concrete benchmarks:

By 2030, China aims to deploy 50,000 industrial 5G private networks, develop around five internationally influential comprehensive platforms, achieve full coverage of integrated applications across 207 industrial subcategories, reach an 80% penetration rate for safety classification and grading among large-scale enterprises in key industries, and push core industry output value beyond 2.5 trillion yuan.
By 2035, the country aims to establish a globally leading industrial internet infrastructure system and an internationally advanced technology and industry system.

How is Standardization Involved?

To support these goals, the policy calls for strengthening the industrial internet standards system. It directs the acceleration of formulating, testing and verifying basic and generic standards, key technology standards, and integrated application standards. The document also calls for optimizing standardization working mechanisms, including cross-industry coordination to accelerate industry integration standards, and for promoting standards-essential patent policy guidelines.

In addition, the policy calls for developing and improving data security protection standards, enhancing data classification and grading management, and conducting regular important data identification, catalogue filing and risk assessment.

The policy also extends to international cooperation. It encourages Chinese stakeholders to actively participate in international standardization activities, with a focus on key technologies and application scenarios, to expand China’s presence in international standards bodies. The document further encourages leveraging bilateral and multilateral mechanisms—including the Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS cooperation—to promote Chinese technical standards, infrastructure frameworks and application experiences internationally.

These standardization tasks are executed through a domestic institutional framework distributed across several technical committees. At the top level, MIIT and the National Standardization Administration of China (SAC) coordinate the overall design of the national industrial internet standards system and set the strategic direction. The work is then divided into specialized areas and assigned to different bodies:

SAC/TC 485 (Communication), administered by the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), oversees network infrastructure standards.
SAC/TC 28 (Information Technology), under the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), leads platform and integrated application standards.
SAC/TC 124 (Industrial Process Measurement and Control), managed by the China Machinery Industry Federation, handles risk assessment and contributes to platform standards for collaborative functions. This committee also works with SAC/TC 260 (Cybersecurity)under CESI on cybersecurity standards.

For European stakeholders, the Implementation Opinions indicate that standardization efforts will concentrate on consolidating the existing industrial internet standards framework. Standards related to data classification, grading and important data security will be refined to deepen integrated industrial internet applications across supply chains, reflecting a sustained effort to balance security with development. With first-phase domestic targets largely achieved with a relatively complete infrastructure, China is expected to increase its engagement in international standardization. SESEC will monitor these developments closely, as they will influence global rule-setting and market access conditions.

Source: https://www.miit.gov.cn/jgsj/xgj/wjfb/art/2026/art_616aad2c6b1547b7a01422b0a419070d.html