At the 2026 China Unicom Partners Conference held today, Dong Xin, Party Secretary and Chairman of China United Network Communications Limited, delivered a keynote speech emphasizing the company's commitment to avoiding destructive competition while also steering clear of homogeneous market battles.
Dong stated that China Unicom has positioned next-generation communication networks and computing power networks as its core business, reflecting the company's fundamental identity as a telecom operator. He noted that these new communication systems go beyond traditional network upgrades, evolving from ground-based pathways to global, integrated space-air-ground-sea connectivity, marking a critical revolution in digital-era infrastructure.
Highlighting connectivity as the company's foundational strength, Dong revealed that China Unicom has surpassed 1.3 billion total connections, with its operational model expanding from connecting people and devices to connecting new technologies and intelligent systems. He expressed willingness to deepen collaborative innovation across industry, academia, research, and application sectors, strengthen 6G technology development, and activate AI application capabilities to drive inclusive and secure AI advancement.
Regarding computing power networks, Dong described them as an intelligent national digital backbone. He reaffirmed China Unicom's commitment to sustainable green development and announced plans to increase investment significantly. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the company expects to catalyze investments totaling nearly one hundred billion yuan, working with partners to balance strategic spending with reasonable returns.
Dong acknowledged that technological progress has made market demand increasingly quality-driven, diverse, and personalized. To shift the industry's focus from parameter and model competition to scenario-based and delivery-oriented competition, China Unicom is developing a drag-and-drop marketplace model. This platform would offer ready-to-use capability components and a wide array of popular products.
Referencing the emerging role of Frontend Deployment Engineers, Dong said such positions will become standard practice at China Unicom. The company plans to adopt flexible service models, putting users in control and enabling differentiated offerings to break the pattern of homogeneous competition. He emphasized, "We oppose vicious competition and must especially avoid homogeneous competition—that is our goal."
On the topic of tokens, Dong described them as units of AI capability and carriers of value. China Unicom aims to enhance its ability to create, store, transmit, clean, and apply tokens, managing the full lifecycle of these digital assets. By aggregating mainstream models and mature intelligent agents, the company seeks to accelerate large-scale, commercial AI deployment. China Unicom is also opening its Agent-plus-Token-plus-AI cloud operational system to partners, integrating computing supply, model invocation, and scenario returns into a unified framework—transforming connectivity into productivity and delivering high-quality dividends for the industry while building a new paradigm for the digital economy.