On the afternoon of December 8, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held its second collective study session on implementing the National Big Data Strategy. While presiding over the session, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that big data is advancing at a rapid pace, and that we must assess the situation, plan carefully, make forward‑looking arrangements, and strive to take the initiative. He called for a deep understanding of the current state and trends of big data development and its impact on economic and social progress, an analysis of both the achievements and the challenges facing China’s big data sector, and efforts to implement the national big data strategy—accelerating the improvement of digital infrastructure, promoting the integration and open sharing of data resources, ensuring data security, and speeding up the building of a Digital China to better serve the country’s economic and social development and enhance the well‑being of the people.

　　Mei Hong, Vice President of Beijing Institute of Technology and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided an explanation on this issue and offered his views and recommendations.

　　Comrades of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee listened carefully to the briefing and engaged in discussion.

　　While presiding over the study session, Xi Jinping delivered a speech. He pointed out that big data represents a new stage in the development of informatization. As information technology converges with human production and daily life, and as the Internet spreads rapidly, global data is experiencing explosive growth and massive aggregation, exerting a profound impact on economic development, social governance, national administration, and people’s livelihoods. Countries around the world have made advancing economic digitalization a key driver of innovative development, undertaking forward-looking initiatives in areas such as cutting-edge technological research and development, data openness and sharing, privacy and security protection, and talent cultivation.

　　Xi Jinping emphasized the need to drive innovation and development in the big data technology industry. China’s digital economy—characterized by online shopping, mobile payments, the sharing economy, and other emerging business models—has flourished and placed the country at the forefront of global progress. We must aim for the cutting edge of science and technology, concentrate our strongest resources on breakthroughs in core big data technologies, and accelerate the establishment of an independent, controllable big data industrial chain, value chain, and ecosystem. We should expedite the construction of a next-generation information infrastructure that is high-speed, mobile, secure, and ubiquitous; coordinate the planning of government‑related and societal data resources; and strengthen the development of foundational and critical information resources, thereby creating a cyberspace characterized by the interconnection of all things, human–machine interaction, and seamless integration between terrestrial and space‑based systems. Leveraging China’s institutional and market advantages, we must address major national needs and focus on key areas of economic development, comprehensively implementing initiatives to promote big data development and refining the policy framework supporting it. We must uphold the principles of data openness and market‑driven approaches, using data as a catalyst to foster deep integration among industry, academia, and research institutions, thus establishing a data‑driven innovation system and development model. In addition, we will cultivate a cohort of leading big data enterprises and build a multi‑tiered, diversified talent pool in the field of big data.

　　Xi Jinping pointed out that we must build a digital economy with data as a key element. The development and application of big data are indispensable for building a modernized economic system. We must remain committed to supply-side structural reform as the main thread, accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote the integrated development of the real economy and the digital economy, and deepen the integration of the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence with the real economy. We should continue to make great strides in deepening the integration of informatization and industrialization, and drive the manufacturing sector to accelerate its transformation toward digitalization, networking, and intelligentization. We must implement the innovation-driven development strategy for the industrial internet in depth, systematically advance the construction of industrial‑internet infrastructure and data‑resource management systems, harness the role of data as both a fundamental resource and an engine of innovation, and speed up the emergence of a digital economy led and supported primarily by innovation.

　　Xi Jinping emphasized the need to leverage big data to advance the modernization of national governance. It is essential to establish and improve mechanisms that use big data to support scientific decision-making and social governance, promote innovation in government management and social governance models, and achieve more evidence-based policymaking, more precise social governance, and more efficient public services. By taking initiatives such as e‑government and smart city development, and by pursuing data centralization and sharing, we should drive the integration of technologies, business processes, and data, break down information silos, and build a nationwide, coordinated, and unified data‑sharing platform that enables seamless access. This will help establish a national information resource-sharing system, enabling collaborative management and services across different administrative levels, regions, systems, departments, and sectors. We must make full use of big data platforms to conduct comprehensive risk assessments and enhance our capacity to detect, forecast, and prevent risks. Furthermore, we should strengthen public‑private partnerships and multi‑stakeholder engagement, accelerate data centralization and sharing in the public service sector, and facilitate platform connectivity with enterprise‑generated social data, thereby forging a powerful synergy for social governance. Finally, we must bolster online content development, establish a comprehensive internet governance framework, and foster a clean and healthy cyberspace.

　　Xi Jinping pointed out that big data should be leveraged to safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods. Big data has great potential in this regard. We must adhere to a development philosophy centered on the people, advance initiatives such as “Internet Plus Education,” “Internet Plus Healthcare,” and “Internet Plus Culture,” reduce the need for citizens to make in-person visits while enabling data to flow more efficiently, and continuously enhance the equity, inclusiveness, and convenience of public services. We must remain problem‑oriented, address pressing issues and challenges in the area of people’s livelihoods, strengthen public services, close existing gaps, and promote the widespread application of big data across sectors including education, employment, social security, medical care, housing, and transportation, while deeply developing a range of user‑friendly applications. Furthermore, we should intensify the use of big data in targeted poverty alleviation and ecological‑environmental protection, thereby contributing to the decisive victory in the battle against poverty and to the accelerated improvement of the ecological environment.

　　Xi Jinping emphasized the need to effectively safeguard national data security. It is essential to strengthen the security protection of critical information infrastructure, enhance the nation’s capacity to protect vital data resources, and bolster capabilities for data‑security early warning and attribution. Coordinated efforts must be made across policy, regulation, and law, with accelerated progress in formulating relevant legal and institutional frameworks. Systems should be established for defining property rights over data resources, as well as for their openness, circulation, and trading, while further improving the system for protecting data‑related property rights. Greater protection must be afforded to technological patents, digital copyrights, digital content products, and personal privacy, so as to uphold the interests of the general public, maintain social stability, and ensure national security. Moreover, we should intensify research on international data‑governance policy reserves and governance rules, and put forward a Chinese approach.

　　Xi Jinping pointed out that the ability to collect, analyze, and apply data is a fundamental skill for leading cadres in performing their duties. Leading cadres at all levels should strengthen their learning, gain a solid understanding of big data, make effective use of it, and enhance their capacity to leverage data to advance all aspects of their work. They must continuously improve their grasp of the underlying principles governing the development of big data, ensuring that it plays an even greater role in all areas of work.