jakiro
Author: Zhang Feng
The “Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” (hereinafter referred to as the “Recommendations”) were adopted in October 2025, systematically drawing up a blueprint for national development in the next five years.In the process of comprehensively promoting Chinese-style modernization, the construction of “Digital China” has been given an important strategic position, and it is clearly stated that“Promoting the construction of Digital China in depth”, “Improving the basic system of data elements” and “Building an open, shared and secure national integrated data market”and other key tasks.Against this background, the development and utilization of digital assets has ushered in unprecedented policy opportunities and development space.
1. Marketization of data elements: building an institutional foundation for the development and utilization of digital assets
The “Recommendations” clearly propose “improving the basic system of data elements” and emphasize “building an open, shared and secure national integrated data market.”This means that in the next five years, our country will accelerate the marketization, legalization, and standardization of data elements to lay an institutional foundation for the development and utilization of digital assets.
The data resource confirmation and circulation mechanism will be gradually improved.The “Recommendations” propose “deepening the development and utilization of data resources” and emphasize “improving the protection of property rights.”In the future, the state will promote the establishment of systems such as the definition of data property rights, data classification and classification, and data transaction rules, and promote the transformation of data resources from a “sleeping” state into tradable and value-added digital assets.Enterprises should focus on the construction of data asset registration, evaluation, and trading platforms, and actively participate in data element market pilots.
The integration and development of public data and social data usher in opportunities.The “Recommendations” propose to “promote the integration and sharing of government data, public data and social data.”In fields such as medical care, transportation, environmental protection, and urban governance, the government will promote data openness and sharing to provide enterprises with a rich source of digital assets.Enterprises with data cleaning, modeling, and analysis capabilities will take the lead in data value-added services.
Data security and privacy protection have become prerequisites for development.The “Recommendations” emphasize “strengthening national security capacity building in emerging fields such as network, data, and artificial intelligence.”In the process of data development and utilization, compliance and security will become the threshold for enterprises to participate in market competition.Technologies such as privacy computing, blockchain, and data desensitization will play a key role in the process of data assetization.
2. Smart contracts and blockchain: Promote the automation and trustworthiness of digital assets
Although the “Recommendations” do not directly mention “blockchain” or “smart contracts”, they provide policy space for the implementation of smart contracts in terms of “accelerating the innovation of digital intelligence technologies such as artificial intelligence” and “improving supervision”.
Smart contracts will be the first to be implemented in the fields of government affairs and finance.In fields such as government services, supply chain finance, and intellectual property protection, smart contracts can realize automation, transparency, and non-tamperability of business processes.For example, in government procurement, land registration, copyright transactions and other scenarios, smart contracts can effectively improve efficiency and reduce the risk of disputes.
Blockchain + digital identity builds a trusted digital ecosystem.The “Recommendations” propose to “promote the construction of a rule of law society” and “create a good environment in which the whole society advocates the rule of law, abides by rules, respects contracts, and maintains justice.”The combination of blockchain technology and digital identity can establish a trusted digital identity system for individuals and enterprises, supporting the registration, transaction and rights protection of digital assets.
RegTech and compliance smart contracts will rise.As the digital asset market develops, regulatory agencies will continue to increase their requirements for anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, and data compliance.Smart contract systems with automatic compliance inspection capabilities will become an urgent need for financial institutions and platform companies.
3. Digital asset application empowerment: from finance to entity, from consumption to governance
The “Recommendations” clearly propose “comprehensive implementation of the ‘artificial intelligence +’ action” and “leading the transformation of scientific research paradigms with artificial intelligence”, and emphasize “promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy.”As a key element of the digital economy, digital assets will play an enabling role in multiple fields.
The digitization of financial assets is accelerating.The “Recommendations” propose “steady development of digital renminbi” and “active development of direct financing such as equity and bonds.”In the future, the digital issuance, registration, and trading of traditional financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and bills will gradually become popular.The combination of digital renminbi and smart contracts can support the application of programmable money in scenarios such as targeted payments and supply chain finance.
Digitization of cultural assets and intellectual property.The “Recommendations” propose to “accelerate the development of cultural industries” and “promote the systematic protection of cultural heritage.”Digital collections (NFT), digital copyrights, digital cultural and creative products, etc. will usher in development opportunities.Cultural institutions and content creators can use blockchain technology to realize the assetization and copyright protection of digital content.
Carbon assets and green finance digitization.The “Recommendations” emphasize “accelerating the construction of new energy systems” and “actively and steadily promoting and achieving carbon peaks.”The national carbon emissions trading market will expand its coverage, and the registration, trading, and verification of carbon assets require the support of a digital platform.Blockchain technology can improve the transparency and credibility of carbon data and promote the development of green finance.
Urban governance and digitalization of public services.The “Recommendations” propose to “promote the construction of urban public infrastructure for both leisure and emergency use” and “build a modern people’s city that is innovative, livable, beautiful, resilient, civilized and smart.”Urban digital assets such as digital identity, digital property, and digital transportation will play an important role in the construction of smart cities.
4. Technical infrastructure construction: underlying capabilities that support the development of digital assets
The “Recommendations” clearly propose in the “Building a Modern Infrastructure System” section to “build new infrastructure appropriately ahead of schedule” and emphasize “promoting the construction and intensive and efficient utilization of information communication networks, national integrated computing power networks, major scientific and technological infrastructure, etc.”
Computing network and cloud computing facilities are the “soil” of digital assets.The construction of a national integrated computing power network will provide efficient and low-cost infrastructure for the storage, calculation, and trading of digital assets.Enterprises should pay attention to the layout of national computing power hub nodes and actively participate in major projects such as east-west computing and edge computing.
Artificial intelligence and big data platforms are the “engines” of digital assets.The “Recommendations” propose to “accelerate innovation in digital intelligence technologies such as artificial intelligence.”The progress of AI technology in data annotation, content generation, risk identification, etc. will promote the intelligent development and management of digital assets.
Blockchain and distributed ledger technology are the “skeleton” of digital assets.Although not named directly, goals such as “improving the basic system of data elements” and “building an open, shared and secure national integrated data market” cannot be separated from the support of distributed ledger technology.Alliance chains, cross-chain technologies, zero-knowledge proofs, etc. will play a key role in data sharing and asset circulation.
5. Challenges and Suggestions: How to seize digital asset opportunities during the “15th Five-Year Plan” period?
Despite the significant policy dividends, the development of digital assets still faces multiple challenges such as technological maturity, laws and regulations, and market acceptance.Enterprises should start their layout from the following aspects:
Strengthen technology research and development and standard construction.Actively participate in the formulation of national and industry standards and promote the integration and innovation of blockchain, AI, privacy computing and other technologies.
Pay attention to compliance and risk prevention and control.Pay close attention to the dynamics of data security law, network security law, and digital asset supervision policies, and establish a compliance management system.
Explore cross-border cooperation and ecological co-construction.Cooperate with governments, financial institutions, technology companies, and research institutions to jointly promote the implementation of digital assets in specific scenarios.
Cultivate digital asset professionals.Strengthen talent reserves in areas such as blockchain, data science, smart contracts, compliance and risk control.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” period is a critical stage for my country to basically realize socialist modernization. The development and utilization of digital assets will become an important force in promoting high-quality economic development, improving national governance capabilities, and promoting social progress.Under the guidance of the “Recommendations”, there will be systematic breakthroughs in the marketization of data elements, smart contract applications, digital assets empowering the real economy, and the construction of new digital infrastructure.Only by grasping the policy direction, consolidating technical capabilities, and adhering to the bottom line of compliance can we seize the opportunity in the new wave of digital assets and contribute digital power to China-style modernization.
