China home to 4.4m 5G base stations: ministry

BEIJING - The number of 5G base stations in China has topped over 4.39 million by the end of March, with the user penetration rate reaching 75.9 percent, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on Friday.

China's cyber infrastructure has continued to improve and its digital industry has scaled new heights, Xie Shaofeng, chief engineer with the MIIT, said at a press conference.

Digital technologies, represented by 5G and large artificial intelligence models, have developed rapidly, Xie said, noting that the digital sector has achieved a year-on-year revenue growth of 8.2 percent in the first two months.

In the first quarter, China's industrial sector has posted a steady performance, with improvements in the structure and advances in fostering new quality productive forces, according to Xie.