China’s Two sessions: metaverse should be a national project, delegates propose

Metaverse entered government radar at China’s top political event “two sessions”, with a number of delegates proposed building a national research institution for the metaverse.

Kong Falong, a deputy to the National People’s Congress and a party secretary of a rural credit cooperative in the southeastern Jiangxi province, said China should taking a leading position in the new race by building a national metaverse research and development center, investing in more capital to support technology development and talent recruitment.

The national metaverse research and development center should focus on underlying technologies of the metaverse, including blockchain, integrated circuits, graphic engine, 3D environment modeling, interactive algorithms, machine perception and AI capabilities

Citing industry research, Kong estimated that metaverse only merging social media, streaming media and gaming platform can create a USD8 trillion market at least.

“The country that can secure the metaverse leadership is more likely to be a world leader in the digital economy,” Kong said.

Liang Wei, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) , an advisory body consisting of industry leaders and party delegates , said the development of metaverse should be led and governed by centrally governed internet because it can strengthen date security, legal governance and prevent systemic risks such as smart contract bug, money stolen in hacker attack, overhyping of digital items, from happening.

Liang’s statement has been echoed by other delegate at two session.

“The central government should lead the development and application for the metaverse,” said Liu Wei, a CPPCC delegate and president of the Guangzhou-based artificial intelligence services company PCI Technology Group.

He also added that the metaverse could also help digitalize Covid-hit industries such as tourism and act as extended application of China’s digital yuan.

Zhang Ying, a CPPCC delegate, said the country’s metaverse sector currently overemphasize on entertainment front but lags behind in core technology development.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang did not mention metaverse in his government report, but the proposals from delegates reflect a broader interest nationwide and an increasing role of metaverse playing in the national economy.

Many businesses have entered the metaverse sector in bids to capitalize on the next internet revolution, with China’s Metaverse Industry Committee added more listed firms to an industry body designed to develop Chinese metaverse.

Big tech companies from Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Baidu rushed to develop metaverse applications and filed trademark applications.

According to the National Intellectual Property Administration, the number of related trademark applications hits 16,000 by February this year, nearly doubled the number recorded just two months ago.