China’s “AI Plus” Plan: Beijing Maps a Fully AI-Powered Economy by 2035

“Treat AI as an international public good” — China’s State Council lays out a 10-year roadmap to embed AI across industry, services, governance, and global cooperation.

China just formalized an expansive “AI Plus” blueprint that aims to make artificial intelligence a key growth engine of the national economy by 2035, with concrete milestones in 2027 and 2030. The guideline—released by the State Council—targets six pillars for deep AI integration: science & technology, industrial development, consumption, people’s well-being, governance, and global cooperation. By 2035, Beijing says China should “fully enter a new stage” of intelligent economy and society, supporting the broader goal of socialist modernization. english.www.gov.cn gov.cn

Milestones at a glance

By 2027, next-gen smart devices and AI agents should surpass 70% penetration across key sectors; by 2030, that figure rises above 90%, with the intelligent economy positioned as a major growth driver. The plan also commits to stronger foundation models, richer data supply, nationwide intelligent computing capacity, open-source ecosystem building, and talent pipelines. english.www.gov.cn gov.cn

Policy continuity and global posture

The move builds on China’s 2023 Interim Measures for generative AI, the earlier Deep Synthesis rules for synthetic media, and Beijing’s recent Global AI Governance initiatives (including a 2025 Action Plan announced at WAIC). Together, these frame a home-market playbook for deployment while signaling support for UN-led governance and capacity-building in the Global South.

Hardware reality check: chips and compute

To power “AI Plus,” China is racing to reduce reliance on foreign GPUs. New capacity plans aim to triple domestic AI-chip output in the near term, with Huawei-aligned fabrication buildouts and SMIC’s 7 nm ramp cited as key levers—moves meant to mitigate U.S. export curbs and stabilize local model training. ft.com Reuters

Industrial policy and coordination

Regulators are also warning against “disorderly competition,” urging provinces to play to their strengths and avoid redundant AI mega-projects—while backing promising startups (including DeepSeek-class players) that can anchor the ecosystem. The Times of India

Market context: what prompted the push

The State Council’s line echoes reporting that China wants AI treated as an international public good, while domestically turning AI into a new-quality productive force. It follows a year of headline-grabbing advances from Chinese labs (e.g., DeepSeek), even as most assessments still place Chinese frontier models months behind top U.S. systems—gaps Beijing says it can narrow via model capability, security, data, and power-management upgrades. Futurism

What changes on the ground

Science & Tech: AI-driven discovery, large science models, and smart research infrastructures.
Industry: AI across design-to-operations, smarter industrial software, supply-chain orchestration, and “intelligence-native” firms.
Consumption: Smart-device ecosystems (phones, PCs, robots, wearables), new service modes, and upgraded consumer infrastructure.
Well-being: AI teaching assistants, “learning companions,” health assistants, and expanded skills training.
Governance: City systems modernization, risk early-warning, and secure, transparent AI in public services.
Global cooperation: Open-source participation, compute/data talent exchanges, and support for Global South AI capacity. gov.cn