On March 16, 2026, nine national ministries of China, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), the National Health Commission (NHC), the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and the National Data Administration (NDB), jointly issued the Action Plan for Promoting the Innovative Development of the IoT Industry (2026–2028) (hereinafter referred to as “the Action Plan”).

The IoT, based on sensing technologies and communication networks, enables ubiquitous intelligent connections among people, machines, and things, bridging the digital and physical world. In the recent years, Chinese government has attached great importance to IoT development, and the Action Plan clearly stated that the bidirectional empowerment and deep integration of IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) are driving the transition from the “Internet of Everything” to “Ubiquitous Intelligent Connectivity,” making IoT a key strategic lever for cultivating new quality productive forces. The document also defined the current challenge of China’s IoT development as: i)  dependency on foreign countries for some core technologies, ii) lack of interoperability among different terminals; and iii) increasing network and data security risks.

In such context, the purpose of the Action Plan is to promote the innovative development of the Internet of Things (IoT) industry, further accelerate the deep integration of IoT technologies into production, consumption, and social governance, facilitate the deep integration of the digital and real economies, and support the development of new quality productive forces.

The overall requirements of the Action Plan are to take breakthroughs in key technologies as a spearhead and application scenario promotion as a driver, fully leveraging China’s advantages of massive IoT terminal connections and its huge market to promote high‑quality large‑scale IoT deployment, and build a new type of IoT infrastructure featuring full‑domain perception, ubiquitous intelligent connectivity, multi‑network integration, and security and trustworthiness, thereby providing solid support for accelerating new industrialization and building a manufacturing powerhouse and a cyberspace powerhouse.

Specific targets by 2028 include: continuous emergence of new IoT technologies, products, and models, with significantly enhanced industrial innovation capabilities; breakthroughs in key technologies such as sensing, networking and communications, data processing, and security, and a notable improvement in the intelligence level of terminals and platforms; formulation and revision of more than 50 advanced and applicable standards; cultivation and development of 10 application areas with hundreds of millions of connections and 15 application areas with tens of millions of connections; the number of IoT terminal connections striving to reach the scale of tens of billions; and the core IoT industry scale exceeding 3.5 trillion yuan.

The document elaborates the key tasks of the innovative development of IoT industry in five perspectives, and the main contents are summarized as below:

ž   Promote innovation and upgrading of IoT devices – Make breakthroughs in key sensing device technologies, accelerate R&D in passive IoT, multimodal sensing, high‑precision positioning, and swarm perception, and enhance the independent innovation capability of medium‑ and high‑end sensors. Accelerate the optimization and upgrading of application terminals, deeply integrate AI, 5G, edge computing and other technologies into IoT terminals, and require newly added industry application terminals to support and enable IPv6 by default. Enhance the connectivity capability of network equipment, promote the large‑scale deployment of intelligent modules, intelligent gateways, and edge servers, and meet communication requirements such as large‑scale connections, low latency, and anti‑interference.

ž   Improve the service efficiency of IoT platforms – Build a high‑capability “end‑edge‑cloud” platform architecture that enables efficient aggregation of resources, efficient data processing, and efficient information sharing across platforms, and encourage the development of open‑source, secure, energy‑saving, and tailorable IoT operating systems. Optimize platform operation and management, encourage diversified entities such as basic telecom operators, cloud service providers, industry enterprises, and users to participate in platform construction and operation, and open up the entire operation chain from data collection and intelligent analysis to continuous optimization.

ž   Cultivate IoT application scenarios – Deepen integrated IoT applications in production, covering industry, agriculture, energy, transportation, construction, environmental protection, and other sectors, and explore the “solution + product + service” application model. Stimulate application demand in the consumption field, innovating scenarios such as human‑vehicle‑home connectivity, smart shopping malls, telemedicine, digital education, and smart culture & tourism. Strengthen the supply of IoT services for social governance, supporting urban intelligent control, risk early warning, emergency rescue, digital twin cities, and low‑altitude intelligent networked systems, and explore the “solution + construction + operation” model.

ž   Strengthen the IoT network infrastructure – Build mobile IoT networks moderately ahead of demand, establishing an ecosystem combining 4G (including LTE‑Cat1, i.e., LTE Category 1) and 5G (including NB‑IoT, i.e., Narrowband IoT, and RedCap, i.e., Reduced Capability), and promote the pilot verification of satellite IoT, underground/underwater IoT, and new short‑range wireless communication technologies. Accelerate multi‑network integration, promoting the coordinated deployment of mobile IoT, wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wired networks, as well as integration with industry‑specific networks such as those for industry, transportation, and environmental protection. Enhance the intelligence level of networks, exploring the application of AI in network management and promoting collaborative innovation with future network technologies such as quantum communication and next‑generation Internet.

ž   Foster an IoT industrial ecosystem – Improve the industrial system by building a core industry chain map and a list of key technologies. Highlight the leading role of enterprises, supporting backbone enterprises in establishing manufacturing innovation centers and encouraging “little giant” enterprises to develop competitive products. Deepen the integration of IoT and AI, creating advanced intelligent agents, promoting lightweight deployment of large AI models on terminals and edges, and cultivating industry‑specific models. Unlock the value potential of IoT data, promote unified data standards to facilitate cross‑brand, cross‑terminal, and cross‑platform interoperability of product data. Strengthen IoT security supervision by implementing network security identification management and building a distributed identity authentication mechanism for IoT devices.

requirements and arrangements concerning standard‑setting, standard systems, laws and regulations

ž   Improve and optimize the IoT standard system, accelerate the development and implementation of key technology standards and industry integration application standards, and formulate or revise more than 50 advanced and applicable standards.

ž   Promote the development of unified IoT data standards to facilitate cross‑brand, cross‑terminal, and cross‑platform interoperability of product data.

ž   Promote the implementation of network security identification management, accelerate mutual recognition of network security identifications domestically and internationally, and guide enterprises to participate voluntarily.

ž Build a distributed identity authentication mechanism for IoT devices based on a blockchain‑based distributed digital identity service system.

ž   Promote the integrated development of IoT and identification resolution systems, establishing a “one object, one code, one number, one data” management system.

ž   Guide IoT‑related enterprises to fulfill responsibilities and obligations such as data classification and grading, identification and reporting of important data, security protection, and risk assessment.

ž   Enterprises involved in telecom business operations shall obtain corresponding licenses according to law. Strengthen the management of IoT equipment entering the network.

For foreign stakeholders, especially for manufacturers of IoT devices or products, following points that relate with product compliance and regulatory requirements are advised to be noted in the Action Plan:

ž  Newly added industry application terminals must support and enable ipv6 by default;

 Enterprises engaged in telecom business operations must obtain the required telecommunications operating permits;

ž Comply with the regulations on network security identification management and equipment network access management;

ž  Incorporate a blockchain‑based distributed identity authentication capability into product design;

ž  Fulfil the obligations of data classification, grading, and reporting of important data;

ž Align with the “one object, one code, one number, one data” management system to ensure traceability of device identifiers.