China sets 2030 target for IPv6-first internet and advances IPv6+

China’s Cyberspace Administration has laid out a 2026 to 2030 plan to expand IPv6 use and push further development of IPv6+, a China-backed set of additions to the protocol. The plan matters beyond domestic network plumbing because Beijing is pairing a move toward IPv6 single-stack networks with work on packet-level features that outside analysts have flagged as useful for monitoring and control.

The regulator said on Tuesday that China wants 900 million users connected over IPv6 by 2027, with IPv6 carrying 38% of network traffic. It also wants all connected devices in the country to support IPv6 by that year.

By 2030, the Cyberspace Administration said active IPv6 users should reach 950 million, while IPv6 should account for 42% of network traffic. The agency also said new networks should use IPv6 addresses by default, speeding a shift toward IPv6 single-stack deployments and a service system led by IPv6.

Those targets are specific enough to track, though they do not say how China will define an active IPv6 user or how much of the traffic mix will come from mobile, fixed broadband, enterprise networks or state systems. The plan also does not frame IPv6 as a replacement for the global internet, and it calls for Chinese participation in international standards work.

IPv6+ is the more contested part of the plan

The less routine piece is IPv6+, which Beijing describes as an enhancement layer around IPv6. According to the plan, China will continue work on the non-standard services and on national IPv6 standards in key areas.

IPv6+ can let senders place metadata about content inside packets and can also include information about the route a packet should take. That gives network operators more information at the transport layer than standard IP routing typically requires.

The Mercator Institute for China Studies said last year that IPv6+ has clear appeal for authoritarian governments because carriers could inspect metadata and act on it. The institute noted that one potential use would be charging extra for selected traffic, an idea telecom operators have long found attractive as they argue they fund last-mile infrastructure that carries content from large streaming and internet platforms.

The same metadata visibility could also support censorship, according to the institute. China already blocks large amounts of online content. If traffic from dissidents or restricted services carried identifying information in packets, network operators would have another mechanism to locate and block it.

Standards push follows the failed New IP effort

The Mercator Institute also said Chinese telecom equipment vendors have implemented IPv6+ and exported equipment that supports it to several countries. The source did not identify those countries in the plan summary, and Beijing’s new document does not say how widely IPv6+ has been deployed.

China previously tried to advance a separate protocol proposal called New IP, which also included features critics viewed as favorable to surveillance. Beijing sought approval for New IP through the International Telecommunications Union, even though the Internet Engineering Task Force maintains the existing IP standards. That effort did not succeed.

The new plan does not say China will abandon standard IPv6. It does, however, show that Beijing is still trying to shape the technical direction of IP networking through domestic standards, vendor implementation and international participation. For network equipment makers, carriers and governments buying Chinese infrastructure, the practical question is whether IPv6+ remains an optional vendor feature or becomes part of how networks are built and governed.

This story draws on original reporting from The Register.