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China leads the global race for 6G with tests since 2019, when commercial 5G barely existed, launched an experimental satellite in 2020, and accumulates leadership in patents, while the Five-Year Plan until 2030 confirms the technology as a strategic priority alongside artificial intelligence in a geopolitical dispute with the United States, South Korea, and Europe
While the rest of the world was still trying to understand what 5G would mean in practice, China had already taken the next step. In 2019, when commercial 5G barely existed, Huawei confirmed that it was conducting internal 6G tests and projected commercial deployment for the end of the next decade. Since then, the country has accumulated more 6G patents than any other nation, launched what was considered the world’s first 6G satellite in 2020, and conducted experiments transmitting data at one terabyte per second.
The latest Five-Year Plan of China, which sets goals for the period from 2026 to 2030, confirmed 6G as one of the country’s strategic priorities alongside artificial intelligence. The technology promises speeds exceeding 100 Gbps with latency below one millisecond, numbers that make the current 5G, at around 1 Gbps, a modest technology in comparison. But what is at stake goes far beyond faster internet: it is a geopolitical contest that no country wants to lose.
Why China started investing in 6G before everyone else
Since the mid-20th century, China has used the so-called Five-Year Plan to define its national priorities in five-year periods. The 14th Plan, recently concluded, focused on the development of semiconductors and digital technologies, including 6G.
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The progress has been enormous: China has advanced in chip self-sufficiency and consolidated its leadership in telecommunications patents. Now, the new plan until 2030 raises the stakes with two central pillars: artificial intelligence and 6G as engines of economic growth.
China’s strategy is not to react to competition but to get ahead of it. The country understood that dominating the technological standards of a new generation of telecommunications means influencing the entire global chain of equipment, software, and infrastructure.
This is exactly what happened with 5G, when Huawei became the world’s largest network infrastructure provider. With 6G, China wants to repeat and expand that advantage before the race even officially begins.
What China has already concretely done in the race for 6G
The milestones are concrete and documented. In 2019, Huawei confirmed the first internal tests. In 2020, China launched an experimental satellite to test terahertz frequencies associated with 6G.
In 2022, the country conducted experimental transmissions of one terabyte per second over a distance of one kilometer. And in 2023, information emerged that military applications were also being explored, including vibration analysis in water to detect aircraft, submarines, and drones at sea.
By mid-2025, the state broadcaster CCTV confirmed that China’s goals for 6G were being met on schedule.
The country leads the world in the number of registered patents for the technology, giving it an advantage in defining the international standards that will govern the next generation of networks.
It is a position that China has deliberately built over nearly a decade of coordinated state investment.
6G is not about faster internet on mobile
There is a widespread misconception that 6G will be just a faster version of 5G for smartphones. The reality is that the technology is not primarily intended for mobile devices, but for the global network of machines, sensors, and robots.
The Chinese broadcaster CCTV itself stated that 6G is more than a communication technology: it is about powering smart terminals, next-generation sensors, and increasingly complex devices.
The goal is to achieve speeds exceeding 100 Gbps with latency below one millisecond. This enables the remote control of machines with absolute precision, swarms of robots coordinated by artificial intelligence in the field, and entire factories operated without human labor.
Samsung has already revealed plans to transform its factories by 2030 using robots as the workforce and AI as the brain. The updated Five-Year Plan of China emphasizes exactly this path: robotics with artificial intelligence as a pillar of technological development.
Who is competing with China for leadership in 6G
China leads, but it is not alone in the race. South Korea, with SK Telecom and Samsung, has already expressed the intention to test the technology in the short term, with the ambitious goal of having a functional 6G network by 2028.
Japan is also working on its own research projects. Europe, which lost ground during the rollout of 5G by prioritizing frequency bands with more coverage and less speed, is trying to prevent the same delay from repeating with 6G.
The United States has also entered the race. Back in 2019, the then-president publicly stated that he wanted 6G as soon as possible.
The race for 6G has become a matter of technological sovereignty that no developed country can afford to ignore.
Whoever defines the standards, manufactures the equipment, and registers the patents will control the digital infrastructure of the entire world in the coming decades. China understood this before everyone else and acted accordingly.
The problem that no one mentions: 5G has not yet delivered what it promised
While there is talk of 6G, an uncomfortable fact remains: 5G has existed for over six years and is still in its early stages in most countries.
Ericsson pointed out in a report that most European countries prioritized mid and low bands instead of millimeter waves, resulting in more coverage but less speed. In practice, the user experience with 5G in many places is only marginally better than that of 4G.
This scenario raises a legitimate question: does it make sense to accelerate 6G when 5G has not yet reached its maturity?
For China, the answer is yes, because the competition is not about delivering speed to the end consumer now, but about who will control the technological infrastructure of the future. For the Asian country, waiting for 5G to mature before investing in 6G would be conceding the strategic advantage it has built over a decade.
A race that will define who controls the technology of the coming decades
China has turned 6G into a state issue before any other country understood the magnitude of the game.
With nearly a decade of research advantage, the largest number of patents in the world, and a government plan that channels resources until 2030, the Asian giant is positioned to define the standards that will govern the next generation of global networks.
The question is not whether 6G will arrive, but who will control when it arrives.
Do you think China will dominate 6G the same way it did with 5G, or do rivals still have a chance to balance this dispute? And in Brazil, when do you think we will even have true 5G across the territory? Leave your opinion in the comments and share this article with those who follow technology and geopolitics.
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