China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a comprehensive action plan in October 2025 that completely reframes low-altitude operations from experimental aviation to essential urban infrastructure. Titled the “Action Plan for Deepening the Development of Smart Cities and Promoting Global Digital Transformation,” the document mandates that over 50 digitally transformed cities be operational by 2027. It establishes the data infrastructure that autonomous aircraft and drone operations depend on.
This approach diverges sharply from how Western governments tackle the same challenge. The United States and Europe treat urban air mobility primarily as an aviation certification problem, focusing on aircraft safety as the primary gate to deployment. China, instead, embeds low-altitude economic operations within a comprehensive urban data governance framework, where systems integration is a prerequisite for safe operations.
The Infrastructure Imperative
The NDRC directs cities to deploy “low-latency, high-frequency, high-reliability and high-safety reasoning computing power” specifically to support autonomous driving and low-altitude operations. This requirement signals operational priorities that diverge sharply from traditional air traffic control, which relies on centralized operations with human controllers managing relatively sparse data streams. China’s model envisions distributed processing where aircraft, infrastructure, and urban management systems continuously exchange high-frequency data to enable instantaneous airspace allocation.
Shenzhen constructed what local officials describe as China’s largest 5G-advanced low-altitude communication and sensing network. Since 2023, this network has supported 780,000 commercial cargo drone sorties spanning diverse scenarios: business district deliveries, cross-sea logistics, campus operations, and high-value commodity transport. When a cargo drone flies from Shekou to Zhongshan, covering 71.7 kilometers across open water in 45 minutes, the system must coordinate with maritime traffic, weather monitoring, coastal security, and destination logistics in real time. This coordination demands a data infrastructure that most global cities have not constructed.
Shenzhen implemented specialized low-altitude economic regulations in February 2024, establishing a layered airspace management model. The SILAS platform demonstrates how this works: flight operators submit applications through the system, which analyzes potential conflicts and automatically allocates airspace. During 2024, Shenzhen approved 203 active urban air mobility routes and 121 dedicated takeoff and landing points. These figures represent municipal infrastructure approvals rather than platform processing capacity alone. The distinction matters technically: SILAS handles flight workflow and airspace allocation, but the routes and points reflect the cumulative municipal approval framework within which the platform operates.
The action plan mandates that cities build “urban intelligent hubs with unified planning, unified architecture, unified standards, and unified operation and maintenance.” For low-altitude operations, this requirement means integrating flight data with traffic management, emergency response, environmental monitoring, and commercial logistics systems as a unified infrastructure layer rather than as disconnected applications.
Commercial Viability and Market Scale
The Civil Aviation Administration of China reported that the low-altitude economy reached 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, growing 33.8% year over year. Official projections target 1.5 trillion yuan by the end of 2025 and 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035. These projections reflect the government's policy ambitions and assume smooth implementation across hundreds of municipalities with varying technical capacities.
Shenzhen attracted over 1,900 enterprises in the low-altitude industry, creating what analysts describe as the world’s most complete ecosystem for the industry chain. The city’s industrial output from major low-altitude enterprises exceeded 21.38 billion yuan in 2024, rising 26.4% year over year. These metrics reflect coordinated policy implementation across multiple government levels. The December 2024 establishment of the Low-Altitude Economy Development Division within the NDRC formalized coordination that had operated informally. All 31 Chinese provinces subsequently incorporated low-altitude economy development into their regional plans.
The action plan directs cities to “support the moderate and advanced layout of low-altitude data infrastructure in qualified areas.” This language signals that infrastructure development should anticipate demand rather than react to it. Shenzhen exemplifies this approach, implementing regulatory frameworks that enable commercial operators to scale operations predictably.
From Pilots to Operational Deployment
Western observers frequently focus on Chinese policy ambitions while discounting operational realities. Shenzhen’s 780,000 autonomous aerial sorties since 2023 represent routine commercial operations that generate revenue and serve actual market demand. In Shuibei, China’s largest gold and jewelry trading hub, dedicated autonomous aircraft corridors reduced traditional 30-minute ground transport times to 12 minutes. These operations are not technology demonstrations.
The action plan directs cities to “promote the application of drones and robots in public safety, emergency rescue, and other fields.” Guangzhou and Hefei operationalized this directive in March 2025. EHang General Aviation and Heyi Aviation received Air Operator Certificates on March 28, 2025, which authorized commercial eVTOL operations using EHang’s autonomous EH216-S aircraft. These certificates enable future service expansion but do not indicate that full-scale urban air taxi networks operate today.
According to the February 2025 Global AAM/UAM Market Map, approximately 1,504 vertiports are planned worldwide, with China accounting for more than 50% of this total ,roughly 752 facilities. However, the same report estimates that only approximately 980 of the 1,504 planned vertiports globally will be constructed between 2025 and 2029, reflecting attrition due to program failures and delays. Shenzhen alone targets 1,200 platforms by 2026, ranging from basic landing pads to comprehensive passenger terminals. The substantial gap between planned facilities and realistic construction projections reflects the persistent challenge of coordinating infrastructure investment with uncertain demand.
Data Infrastructure and Urban Integration
Cities must build unified data platforms connecting aircraft, infrastructure, and urban management systems. Guangzhou constructed a City Information Modeling platform covering 7,434.4 square kilometers that simulates flooding scenarios by incorporating rainfall intensity, topography, and sensor data from rivers and pipelines. Extending this capability to low-altitude operations means cities can model how unmanned systems should reroute during extreme weather and establish emergency landing zones. However, constructing equivalent platforms requires computational resources that exceed current capabilities in most municipalities.
The action plan directs cities to “optimize and transform computing power facilities” and “provide inclusive and convenient data services.” For low-altitude economy and autonomous driving, it specifies “low-latency, high-frequency, high-reliability, and high-safety reasoning computing power." This computational infrastructure remains expensive and concentrated in eastern provinces. Smaller, less affluent cities face genuine uncertainty about justifying such investment, given limited near-term operational demand.
The action plan requires cities to “strengthen data security governance” and “establish and improve the data security risk prevention and control system.” Balancing the comprehensive data integration that enables low-altitude operations with legitimate privacy protections remains genuinely uncertain. Critics note that innovative city technologies in China connect closely with surveillance programs, and extending these systems to autonomous aircraft operations raises concerns about how flight data feeds into broader monitoring infrastructure. The NDRC's security and privacy framework does not yet resolve these tensions.
Regional Coordination and Cross-Border Challenges
The action plan emphasizes “cross-regional sharing of digital services” and directs cities to “strengthen the coordinated digital development of modern urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas.” For low-altitude operations, this proves intensely challenging because many commercial routes cross jurisdictional boundaries.
Shenzhen’s cross-sea routes to Zhongshan cross municipal boundaries, requiring coordination among two city governments, maritime authorities, and aviation regulators. The Greater Bay Area encompasses Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Macau, and nine Guangdong cities, creating exponentially more complex coordination. Zhuhai launched trial helicopter air-taxi routes linking towns across this region, cutting intercity trips from three hours by road to approximately 30 minutes. Making these operations routine requires precisely the data infrastructure integration mandated by the action plan.
Currently, each city or province manages autonomous aircraft operations under its own regulatory framework and data systems. By 2027 through 2028, the action plan calls for infrastructure “covering major cities” that enables “large-scale data sharing and cooperation.” By 2029, the projection anticipates that the unified national data infrastructure will achieve "efficient data circulation” across municipalities. These timelines assume coordination problems remain manageable and that computational and regulatory systems achieve interoperability on schedule.
Technical Standards and Global Implications
The NDRC mandates that China “establish maturity standards for digital transformation” and “promote standardized and high-quality urban digital transformation.” When Chinese cities adopt consistent approaches to low-altitude data infrastructure, airspace management, and operational procedures, they establish de facto technical standards that other countries may find difficult to ignore.
The State Administration for Market Regulation published mandatory drone reliability standards that took effect on June 1, 2024. Early performance data indicate improvements: a 25% increase in mean time between failures, a 50% reduction in failure rates in urban settings, a 40% reduction in test flight accidents, and 20% shorter test flight periods. These represent early results during the first year after standards implementation, not long-term validated improvements.
China actively exports innovative city technologies, including low-altitude capabilities. Chinese firms completed infrastructure contracts valued at approximately 142.99 billion USD across Belt and Road Initiative countries during 2024 through mid-2025. When these projects incorporate Chinese approaches to urban air mobility, they extend China’s operational model globally. Cities adopting Chinese smart city platforms inherit Chinese assumptions about how autonomous aircraft integrate with broader urban systems, creating technical path dependencies over extended periods.
Military Applications and Operational Learning
China’s military-civil fusion strategy treats technologies developed for commercial applications as inherently dual-use, creating benefits for both military operations and civilian commerce. Recent analyses indicate that the People’s Liberation Army’s drone fleet exceeds that of the United States and Taiwan combined by approximately tenfold. This advantage stems partly from manufacturing scale and partly from operational experience gained through commercial deployment.
When Shenzhen processes 780,000 drone flights annually, Chinese manufacturers accumulate performance data, identify failure modes, and refine operational procedures at scales that purely military programs cannot achieve. The same digital infrastructure that enables commercial drone deliveries also supports military autonomous aircraft operations. The same urban air traffic management systems that coordinate package logistics can also coordinate swarm operations. Understanding how unmanned systems perform in complex urban environments, how weather affects operations across thousands of flights, and how to coordinate multiple simultaneous aircraft provides insights directly applicable to military scenarios. This operational learning represents a structural advantage that accumulates continuously as commercial deployment expands.
Implementation Realities
The action plan sets ambitious targets: 50 or more cities achieving digital transformation by 2027 and a national data infrastructure operational by 2029. Implementation confronts significant obstacles that merit direct acknowledgment rather than minimization.
Technical standardization remains incomplete across municipalities. Smaller municipalities in central and western provinces struggle to attract technical talent and justify the cost of expensive computational infrastructure. Financial sustainability questions persist throughout the industry. Estimates suggest that data infrastructure will attract approximately 400 billion RMB in direct investment annually, but many low-altitude-economy companies have not yet demonstrated consistent profitability. Distinguishing between demand driven by actual market need versus demand sustained primarily through government policy proves difficult in practice.
Coordination complexity intensifies as implementation extends beyond first-mover cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou to smaller municipalities with less technical capacity and fewer resources. Provincial governments might standardize on different technical platforms, air traffic management systems, or data architectures, fracturing what Beijing designs as a unified national infrastructure.
Strategic Outlook
The October 2025 smart cities action plan matters for the low-altitude economy because it formalizes the integration of low-altitude operations into systematic urban infrastructure. The NDRC and coordinating ministries treat low-altitude operations with the same institutional seriousness that cities apply to transportation networks or electrical power grids.
This approach produces outcomes that purely market-driven or aviation-focused strategies struggle to achieve. Operational scale in Shenzhen, regulatory coordination across provinces, infrastructure investment anticipating commercial demand, and integration with broader urban systems all reflect coordinated implementation now codified by the action plan.
However, claiming that a policy is inevitably successful overstates certainty. Implementation across hundreds of municipalities with varying capabilities, resolving data security and privacy tensions, achieving cross-regional coordination, and sustaining investment in infrastructure whose economic justification remains partially dependent on government support presents genuine challenges. The 2027 through 2029 implementation window will reveal whether coordinated planning produces the comprehensive urban air mobility networks the action plan envisions or something more modest than current projections suggest.
For the global low-altitude economy, China’s comprehensive infrastructure approach presents both opportunities and competitive challenges. Operational data, technological development, and infrastructure deployment accelerated through Chinese policy coordination benefit manufacturers and operators worldwide. Competitive pressure forces all industry participants to improve efficiency and reduce costs. But the model simultaneously establishes Chinese technical norms, standards, and expectations that may not align with approaches preferred in North America, Europe, or other regions. Over the coming decade, regional adoption of Chinese systems creates technical path dependencies that reshape the emerging global low-altitude economy.
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China Action Plan for Deepening the Development of Smart Cities and Promoting Global Digital TransformationThis 2025 action plan outlines strategic initiatives to accelerate smart city development and urban digital transformation across China. It emphasizes data-driven governance, digital infrastructure, i...
