China's digital economy more than quadruples in past decade

BEIJING -- China's digital economy logged rapid expansion in recent years, with its scale increasing from 11 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion) in 2012 to over 45 trillion yuan in 2021, official data showed.

The proportion of the digital economy in China's GDP rose from 21.6 percent to 39.8 percent in the period, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China has sped up digital infrastructure construction. By the end of May, the country had built the world's largest and technologically advanced network facilities, covering prefecture-level cities with fiber-optic networks and having 1.7 million 5G base stations.

The country has also accelerated the integration of big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence with such sectors as energy, medical care, transportation, education and agriculture.

In 2021, the value-added output of major electronic information manufacturers rose 15.7 percent year-on-year, hitting a record high in a decade, while the revenues of software and information technology services as well as internet and related services also registered double-digit growth, said the ministry.