PRC Pushes Digital Doppelgänger to Support Low-Altitude Economy

By:

Age: 1 month

CCTV report on “3D Real Scene China” states its preliminary phase will be accomplished in 2025. (Source: CCTV)

Executive Summary:

  • The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is constructing “3D Real-Scene China,” a real-time model of the physical world enabled by advanced telecoms and digital sensing technologies.
  • The low-altitude economy, which is projected to exceed $140 billion by 2026, aligns with national strategy that promotes “new quality productive forces,” will be supported by “3D Real-Scene China.”
  • The government aims for widespread reliance on the “3D Real Scene China” by 2035, with over 80 percent of administrative decisions guided by high-resolution geographic information and real-time spatiotemporal data.
  • The system has the potential to dramatically enhance state surveillance, repression, and control through its rollout of connected devices and sensing technologies.

On October 23, 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT; 工业和信息化部) announced plans to fully implement “3D Real-Scene China (实景三维中国),” an initiative that aims to map the entire country in three dimensions by 2035 (CCTV News, October 23). MIIT’s spokesperson and chief engineer stated that the initiative will support the development of the “low-altitude economy,” which the Economic Times describes as “an emerging economic form (一种新兴经济形态)” that “is representative of the New Quality Productive Forces (是新质生产力的典型代表)” (Economic Times, November 19). “3D Real-Scene China” is also intended to support intelligent driving systems and smart agriculture (China Daily, September 20).

‘3D Real-Scene China’ Supports the Low-Altitude Economy

The “3D Real-Scene China (实景三维中国建设总体实施方案)” project will create a dynamic, digital model of the physical world that is updated in real time. The “Overall Implementation Plan for the Construction of “3D Real-Scene China,” which was first approved in July 2022, defines it as a chronological, three-dimensional infrastructure integrating high-resolution geographic data and Internet of Things (IoT) sensing information (Ministry of Natural Resources, February 24, 2022). The goal is for more than 50 percent of governmental decisions, enterprises’ production schedules, and people’s planning of their daily lives to rely on the system by 2025, rising to 80 percent by 2035.

The project is part of a suite of state plans for building a modernized, technology-driven state. For instance, the 2021 “National Comprehensive Three-dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline (国家综合立体交通网规划纲要),” which has a timeline that runs to both 2035 and mid-century, heralds the incorporation of new communication and sensing technologies into the country’s next-generation transport systems (State Council, February 24, 2021).

One of the more interesting developments is the emergence of the “low-altitude economy,” which refers to economic activity that occurs in airspace at altitudes below 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) (Civil Aviation Administration of China, December 21, 2023). Awareness of the potential of low-altitude airspace was officially signaled in the “Opinions on Deepening the Reform of China’s Low Altitude Airspace Management (关于深化我国低空空域管理改革的意见)” issued by the State Council and Central Military Commission in 2010 (State Council & Central Military Commission, August 19, 2010). The scale of this sector reached $71 billion in 2023 and is projected to exceed $140 billion by 2026 (Economic Information Daily, October 11).

At the press conference to announce the 3D Real-Scene China project, MIIT also unveiled plans to construct low-altitude economy network facilities (People’s Daily, October 23). The low-altitude economy was also referenced in the Decision (决定) document released after the Third Plenum in July (Xinhua, July 21; China Brief, July 26). Since then, local governments in major cities have also issued regulatory documents to support the initiative.

Telecoms Tech Underpins Mapping Project

“3D Real-Scene China” relies on several nascent technologies. One such technology, Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), is key to the project and will also serve as the backbone of the low-altitude economy’s network infrastructure (Xinhua, October 24). ISAC refers to the convergence of sensing and communication technologies within a single system, enabling devices or infrastructure to simultaneously transmit information and gather environmental data (Huawei, November 2022; Ericsson, June 19). Researchers have suggested that it has the potential to be used to detect unmanned aerial vehicles, enable smart transportation, and support automated vehicles and robots. ISAC can also be used for immersive sensing, which involves creating digital twins that build precise models of the physical world. This aligns closely with the requirements for building “3D Real-Scene China.”

ISAC relies on telecommunications technology, an area in which the state has made concerted efforts to support innovation. MIIT, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC; 国家发展改革委), and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST; 科技部) have collaborated to establish working groups to promote 5G and 6G technologies. In late 2023, the 5G promotion group released the “5G-Advanced ISAC Scenario Demand Research Report (5G-Advanced 通感融合场景需求研究报告)” (IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, September 2023). Organizations such as the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT; 中国信息通信研究院), major mobile network operators, and leading domestic device manufacturers like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo were also involved. One foreign company also contributed to the report—Apple. It identified 24 ISAC use cases for transport, the low-altitude economy, telecoms, and general daily life. The 6G promotion group has also published research reports addressing ISAC-related advancements (IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, October 2023).

A second, related technology is urban sensing terminals (城市感知终端), which will also be a foundational component of “3D Real-Scene China.” According to a white paper co-published by Huawei and the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI; 中国电子标准化研究院), these terminals are the “nerve-endings” of smart cities that centralize information gathered through ISAC systems. All of them are expected to run on Huawei operating systems (CESI, November 7, 2022).

These technologies are already being implemented. China Mobile, a key member of the 5G-advanced promotion group, is piloting ISAC-enabled seafood delivery from Zhoushan to nearby Shanghai and aims to build the world’s largest 5G-Advanced commercial network (Posts & Telecom Press, May 21). Meanwhile, Shenzhen has recently unveiled plans to construct over 1,200 low-altitude landing points within two years, complemented by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (北斗卫星导航系统) to create the network that “integrates space, sky, and land (空天地一体化)” (China Brief, March 1; Xinhua, November 6).

Conclusion

“3D Real-Scene China,” ISAC, and urban sensing terminals form a trio of technologies aimed at modeling the country in real time. If the system can be implemented, it could prove beneficial to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) troubled economy through its support of the emerging “low-altitude economy.” A real-time digital mapping of the entire country could also cause substantial concern. Integrated sensing and communication technologies will dramatically enhance surveillance capabilities, increase the state’s capacity for repression and control, and erode the privacy of PRC citizens.