China hits 865m IPv6 users

China had 865 million active users of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) by Sept 2025, accounting for 77.02 percent of the total internet user base, according to a white paper released on Wednesday. This marks a leap from just 2.93 million users in 2017, positioning China at the forefront of global IPv6 adoption.

New types of infrastructure should be built with appropriate forward planning, according to the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development released last Thursday.

"The 15th Five-Year Plan period will mark a crucial stage for consolidating the foundation and achieving comprehensive progress in IPv6 development," said Wang Jingtao, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China.

"The development of a next-generation internet based on IPv6 is a key foundation for strengthening China's capabilities in cyberspace and addressing the urgent demands of economic and social development," Wang added.

China Telecom Group has fully completed its IPv6 upgrade and transformation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with a significant increase in traffic, according to Mao Dongfeng, deputy general manager of China Telecommunications Corporation's Cloud-Network Development Department, noting that IPv6 traffic now accounts for 69 percent of the mobile network traffic.

Chinese company Huawei is also committed to IPv6 industry innovation, investing steadily in both fundamental research and large-scale commercial deployment, said Xue Wu, vice-president of Huawei's data communication product line.

AI has become a key driving force in today's IPv6 development.

AI agent technology has become a focus in both research and practical applications, marking a new starting point for IPv6 innovation, said Wu Hequan, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

He noted that the concepts of "IPv6 for agents" and "agents for IPv6" are mutually reinforcing and will accelerate the growth of the intelligent agent internet.

As the cornerstone of the era of intelligent interconnection of everything, IPv6 will empower the digital, networked, and intelligent transformation of various industries, providing strong support for boosting China's strength in cyberspace, according to the white paper.