China will widen the industrial application of 5G and promote the research and development of 6G as it works to establish a beachhead in the future tech frontier, the country's top industry regulator said on Sunday.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Jin Zhuanglong said at the opening ceremony of the 31st PT Expo, a Chinese telecom industry expo, the ministry will work to further enrich and expand 5G application scenarios, deepen the integration of industrial internet, improve the industrial internet technology system, standard and application systems and build a group of 5G factories to vigorously promote intelligent, green, and integrated development the manufacturing industry.

He added the ministry will speed up the cultivation of emerging industries, seize future advantages and enhance the whole industry chain in mobile communication, optical communication and other fields.

He also called for more efforts to consolidate the leading position of advantageous industries, look ahead to next-generation internet and other cutting-edge fields and comprehensively promote the research and development of 6G technology.

More efforts are expected to create a good development environment, guide and support enterprises to increase research and development and accelerate the development of new emerging digital industries such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and network security.

As of the end of April, China has built 2.73 million 5G base stations, data from the ministry show.