China will update its internet TV network infrastructure to promote Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) based services, according to the National Radio and Television Administration.
By the end of the third quarter of 2020, the upgrading of China’s internet TV-related networks and critical equipment, as well as all the software and hardware sections of integrated internet TV platforms, will have been completed.
The move is part of China’s measures to implement a national plan to encourage the large-scale adoption of IPv6, according to a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Radio and Television Administration.
IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the internet. It allows much higher theoretical limits on the number of IP addresses than the current IPv4 system.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization, began to develop the IPv6 standard in 2018. In July 2017, the IEF ratified the IPv6 as an internet standard.
Industrial profits
Profits of China’s major industrial firms dropped in the first quarter of this year with signs of improvement in March, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
Profits of industrial companies with annual revenue of more than 20 million yuan (US$2.83 million) totaled 781.45 billion yuan in the first quarter, down 36.7% from the same period last year. The contraction narrowed from the 38.3% year-on-year decline in the first two months.
Profits in 39 of the 41 industrial sectors surveyed declined, while 28 sectors saw their profit growth improve or soften in March, said the NBS.
Industrial profits warmed in March as stepped-up work and production resumed nationwide which drove up sales for industrial products, said NBS official Zhang Weihua.
Digital economy
China launched the commercial use of a blockchain-based service network (BSN) on Saturday as the country strives to promote the development of blockchain technology and explore innovations in the digital economy, according to the State Information Center (SIC).
The BSN was designed as a global public infrastructure network, aimed at consistently reducing blockchain applications’ costs in development, deployment, operation and maintenance, interoperability and regulation.
With beta tests starting last October, the network has acquired stable functions and played an active role in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, said Liu Yunan, head of the SIC.
Liu also noted that the network has covered a batch of innovative applications, such as charities, item traceability, electronic invoicing, copyright protection and supply chain management.
New third board
China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotations (NEEQ), also known as the “new third board,” has seen a total turnover of 29.8 billion yuan since the beginning of this year.
Launched in 2013, the new third board is the third national equity trading bourse after the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It is designed for innovative, startup and high-growth micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises. As of Friday, a total of 8,652 companies had been listed on the NEEQ.
China has outlined a series of reforms to better orient the NEEQ to the needs and features of small enterprises and support high-quality growth of the real economy.
Company news
Kweichow Maotai, a Chinese liquor maker, and Huawei Technologies signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Shenzhen on Sunday.
The two companies will carry out comprehensive cooperation in the fields of information consultation planning, new infrastructure construction, “Smart Maotai” engineering and industrial internet platforms.
The partnership was aimed to give full play to Maotai’s accumulation in the liquor industry and Huawei’s advantages in the information technology sector and further promote the digital transformation and development of the liquor industry.
Chinese tech giant Tencent said it has utilized its artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the medical sector to aid the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak. Data from the firm showed that so far it owned more than 300 patents in the medical AI field, ranging from medical auxiliary diagnosis to medical record management and risk monitoring to medical imaging.
While promoting a digital medical solution amid the global battle, the Shenzhen-based enterprise open-sourced its Covid-19 self-triage assistant, an online tool backed by AI technology, to help people around the world conduct a self-assessment about potential coronavirus symptoms.
The story written by Xu Jiangshan and first published at ATimesCN.com. It was translated into English by Nadeem Xu.