On 26 December 2023 the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Administration, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the Implementation Opinion on Deepening the East Data, West Computing Project and Accelerating the Construction of a National Integrated Computing Network (Fa Gai Shu Ju [2023] No. 1779).
The document moves East Data, West Computing from data centre placement towards integrated scheduling of a computing network. For project owners and computing users, the signal is clear: computing capacity is no longer merely local facility capacity but public infrastructure organised across regions and tiers of latency.
From hub nodes to a computing network
The opinion sets a target for the end of 2025: an inclusive, accessible, green and secure comprehensive computing infrastructure system should take initial shape; coordination between eastern and western computing should improve; and new computing capacity at national hub nodes should account for more than 60 per cent of the national total.
This changes how projects are assessed. Rack count and investment amount are no longer sufficient; computing type, scheduling capability, network latency and green indicators also matter. Whether a project is genuinely connected to the national hub system becomes central to policy support.
1ms, 5ms and 20ms latency circles
The document proposes a 1ms urban computing network, a 5ms regional computing network and a 20ms cross-hub computing network.
The tiers correspond to different workloads. Urban networks suit low-latency real-time services; regional networks suit most online services; cross-hub networks suit offline training, cold data processing and backup. Companies should first classify workloads by latency requirement rather than place all loads at one node.
Green development and energy constraints
The advantage of western hubs lies in energy and climate, but energy constraints are not relaxed. The opinion emphasises green development, renewable energy and computing energy efficiency.
Project owners must address the source of energy quotas, green power trading, PUE targets, waste heat recovery and carbon accounting. Users should examine the green qualifications of suppliers, particularly where exporters face carbon footprint requirements.
Security and data compliance
A computing network connects diverse resources, and the security boundary expands accordingly. The opinion provides for a security application technology testbed and emphasises network and data security.
For cross-regional scheduling, companies should assess where data is processed and stored, whether this constitutes outbound transfer, how important data is identified, whether the scheduling platform touches business data, and the supplier’s access control and logging capability.
Computing trading and contracts
An integrated network will promote computing trading and scheduling services. Contracts should specify computing specifications, latency, availability, metering, settlement, fault responsibility and data deletion.
Where capacity comes from multiple suppliers, resale, subcontracting and the chain of responsibility must be addressed. Who is responsible for final service quality and who bears security incidents cannot be left to vague platform coordination.
Four preparations for project owners
First, confirm whether the project is within hub node and local planning. Second, design computing tiers according to business latency requirements. Third, prepare energy, green power and carbon accounting materials. Fourth, complete data classification and cross-regional scheduling assessment.
For data classification and cross-border assessment, see data compliance; for network and facility security, see cybersecurity compliance; for project access and qualifications, see business licensing.
This note is based on the Implementation Opinion on Deepening the East Data, West Computing Project and Accelerating the Construction of a National Integrated Computing Network issued by five departments on 26 December 2023. It is for reference only and does not constitute legal advice.