China has already deployed private 5G in manufacturing on a scale that is difficult to match elsewhere. The next stage appears to be less about proving that 5G works inside factories and more about integrating it deeply into production systems, industrial computing, data platforms and increasingly AI.
That direction was reinforced in June 2026 when China announced plans to have 50,000 industrial 5G private networks by 2030. The programme also aims for industrial internet applications to cover all 207 industrial sub-categories and for around five globally influential industrial internet platforms to be established. China Daily reported that 1,260 5G factories had already been established by the end of 2025.
The scale of activity is confirmed by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In March 2026, the ministry said its 5G Factory programme had driven the construction of more than 23,000 industrial 5G private networks, produced a catalogue of 1,260 5G factories and selected 100 leading implementations.
More interestingly, MIIT said the programme had helped move "5G+Industrial Internet" from individual applications towards system-level integration, and from peripheral support functions into core production processes.
A new Mobile World Live case study, produced in partnership with China Unicom, provides a useful example of what this transition can look like. It examines China Unicom's work with Chinese automotive manufacturer Changan Auto, first at its Digital-Intelligent Factory in Chongqing and then as Changan expanded manufacturing into Thailand.
The interesting part is not simply the number of 5G radios involved. At Changan, private 5G is becoming part of a much larger industrial architecture bringing together connectivity, cloud and edge computing, industrial IoT, production control, data management and applications.
At the centre of China Unicom's approach is what it calls the 5G+ Unified Industrial Control Platform. This combines 5G connectivity with centralised cloud and distributed Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), bringing together data collection, software governance and hardware control.
Applications can then be built on this digital foundation for flexible production scheduling, agile manufacturing, intelligent logistics and digital twins.
China Unicom describes the wider 5G Factory New Infrastructure as having three layers: the 5G infrastructure itself, smart IT equipment used to collect and process information, and a smart application layer enabling data sharing and interoperability between business systems and devices.
This is quite different from the simplistic idea that deploying a private 5G factory mainly means replacing industrial Wi-Fi or Ethernet with cellular connectivity.
A private 5G network at considerable scale
Changan Auto's Avatr Digital-Intelligent Factory in Chongqing was developed in collaboration with China Unicom and Huawei.
One of the problems it was intended to address was the fragmented nature of existing industrial infrastructure. Changan had numerous isolated systems, multiple methods for exchanging data and legacy architectures that made changes difficult to implement.
The factory also relied on a combination of on-site bus, industrial Ethernet and industrial wireless networks. According to the case study, these were costly to install and maintain, lacked interoperability and did not have a common protocol standard.
China Unicom deployed a large-scale private 5G network consisting of:
- 4 dedicated macro base stations
- 338 indoor coverage nodes
- 7 major workshops
- 87 production lines
- capacity for more than 12,000 terminals
- 40 Gbps network-slice bandwidth
The network also incorporates technologies including 5G-Advanced, 5G LAN, Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), edge computing and Dual-Transmit Selective-Receive.
The private network interconnects more than 12,000 pieces of equipment, including over 3,200 directly connected devices and more than 2,000 aggregated connections. Data acquisition is claimed to reach one million data points per second, while monthly traffic exceeds 6.3 TB.
What matters more than the raw device count, however, is what Changan is doing with the connectivity.
China Unicom says more than 40 business scenarios were analysed and the 12,000-plus devices categorised into more than 500 object models. The project has also produced 63 scenario-based applications.
These include flexible production scheduling where rush orders can be inserted dynamically and instructions transmitted directly to the relevant workstations and equipment.
The Chongqing Communications Administration provides further context. In June 2026 it described the Avatr factory as being built on a China Unicom 5G hybrid private network, combined with an industrial internet platform and technologies including big data, AI and digital twins.
The architecture supports Changan's wider Customer-to-Manufacturer, or C2M, strategy, where production can respond more directly to customer orders rather than relying primarily on inventory-based manufacturing.
This is where the private network becomes more interesting. 5G is not the application. It is becoming part of the communications and computing foundation over which manufacturing equipment, logistics systems, industrial data and production processes can increasingly be coordinated.
The company-reported business outcomes are significant.
Following the transformation, Changan says its factory achieved a 100% on-time order delivery rate and 100% traceability for critical components, while planning accuracy exceeded 99%.
Production capacity ramp-up time was reduced by 20% and Order-to-Delivery time shortened by between three and seven days. Overall costs reportedly fell by 20%, while production efficiency improved by 20%, with a vehicle coming off the assembly line every 60 seconds on average.
As with most operator and vendor case studies, these figures should be treated as company-reported outcomes rather than independent benchmarks. Nevertheless, they illustrate where the claimed return on investment is coming from. It is not simply from eliminating cables or replacing Wi-Fi access points, but from changing how the overall manufacturing system operates.
Why technologies such as 5G LAN matter
One technology mentioned almost in passing in the new case study is 5G LAN. It is worth looking at more closely because it demonstrates why industrial private 5G cannot simply be treated as conventional mobile broadband deployed indoors.
Industrial cameras, PLCs and other factory devices frequently depend on Layer 2 communications and existing Ethernet network structures.
Earlier work involving Changan, China Unicom and Huawei used the 5G LAN capability introduced in 3GPP Release 16 to provide Layer 2 networking across the 5G network.
Huawei's case study explains that machine-vision and PLC devices commonly communicate at Layer 2. Without 5G LAN, additional routers were required in the Changan implementation to convert between Layer 2 and Layer 3 communications. 5G LAN enabled devices to communicate directly at Layer 2 without those additional routers, while existing applications, network topologies and configurations could remain unchanged.
That earlier Changan implementation should not automatically be assumed to be identical to the current Avatr factory deployment. However, it illustrates why technologies such as 5G LAN, TSN and edge computing matter as cellular connectivity moves deeper into industrial production.
The challenge is no longer simply connecting more endpoints. It is making 5G fit into industrial architectures that already have demanding requirements around Ethernet networking, control systems, deterministic communication and operational continuity.
Hybrid private networks and a new independent model
There is another particularly interesting development taking place in China which helps put the Changan deployment into context.
The Avatr factory is officially described as using a China Unicom 5G hybrid private network.
But China is now adding another deployment model.
In June 2026, MIIT, together with four other government bodies, formally launched trials of industrial 5G standalone private networks.
The official definition is unusually clear. An industrial 5G independent private network is an enterprise-specific network where the industrial enterprise leads the construction of key infrastructure including the 5G access network and core network, and which can operate independently without relying on the public mobile network.
The trials are aimed particularly at large and very large enterprises and sectors with specific requirements around communications networks and key production data.
The architecture can include dedicated 5G base stations, core networks and edge-computing systems, and MIIT explicitly encourages integration with technologies including industrial optical networks, industrial Ethernet and TSN.
The programme also identifies future 5G and 5G-Advanced capabilities including ultra-low latency, integrated sensing and communications, passive IoT, high-precision positioning and network intelligence.
Importantly, "independent" does not necessarily mean that enterprises must do everything themselves. MIIT also encourages collaboration between industrial companies, mobile operators, equipment suppliers and solution providers in areas including investment, construction, applications and network operation and maintenance.
The distinction is important. An operator-integrated hybrid private network, such as the Changan example, and an enterprise-led industrial 5G independent private network represent different answers to questions around network deployment, control, interaction with public networks and management of industrial data.
China therefore does not appear to be converging on a single architecture for private 5G.
Instead, the market is broadening to accommodate different enterprise requirements, ranging from networks closely integrated with mobile operator infrastructure through to dedicated networks capable of operating independently of the public network.
Taking the industrial platform overseas
The second part of the China Unicom case study switches from Chongqing to Changan's first major overseas manufacturing operation in Southeast Asia.
Changan established its new factory in the Rayong Industrial Zone in Thailand. Crucially, the project was not treated as a simple copy of the Chinese factory.
China Unicom says the operating environment, infrastructure and requirements were considerably different, meaning that a tailored implementation was required.
Among the challenges were insufficient IT infrastructure, an extremely compressed implementation timetable, limited availability of on-site technical expertise and poor cellular coverage at the remote factory location.
Data governance added another complication. Changan needed to satisfy its own data-protection requirements while also complying with Thailand's Personal Data Protection Act and managing cross-border data transfers.
China Unicom consequently designed infrastructure spanning five zones covering the core plant, internet data centre, production environment, offices and WAN.
The underlying platform uses an integrated virtualisation and container-cloud architecture, together with middleware and multi-mode data services, designed to reduce fragmentation and duplicate infrastructure across different applications.
The security architecture is particularly interesting. Database auditing, data de-identification and watermarking are used to record local data access and usage. Dedicated firewalls physically separate the production intranet from cross-border operational channels.
The resulting hierarchical data-management model keeps core data stored on-premises, while allowing non-sensitive data to be transmitted across borders.
There is an important qualification here. The case study does not provide evidence that the Thailand factory has the same detailed private 5G radio deployment as Chongqing.
For Chongqing, we are given detailed information on macro sites, indoor coverage nodes, terminals and 5G technologies. For Thailand, the paper focuses instead on IT infrastructure, virtualisation, security, data management, system integration and delivery.
It would therefore be misleading to say that China Unicom simply reproduced the Chongqing private 5G network in Thailand.
What appears to be replicated is the broader industrial digital platform and the methods for deploying and integrating it.
The case study says the Thailand project has produced reusable network architecture templates, deployment scripts, security specifications and acceptance procedures, creating a standardised blueprint for future deployments.
The Rayong plant itself has now moved well beyond commissioning. Changan says the factory has five main manufacturing workshops and an initial annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles.
In June 2026, one year after beginning operations, Changan announced that the plant had produced its 20,000th locally manufactured vehicle. It currently manufactures the DEEPAL S05 and NEVO Q05 and is being positioned as both a Southeast Asian manufacturing hub and an export base for right-hand-drive markets.
This international dimension may ultimately be one of the more important parts of the private-network story.
Large manufacturers do not operate factories in isolation. They need technology architectures that can be standardised sufficiently to reproduce across multiple locations while remaining flexible enough to accommodate different telecom infrastructure, regulations, data-sovereignty requirements, security policies and existing industrial systems.
This fits with the wider direction of China's industrial 5G strategy.
MIIT is no longer talking simply about installing individual 5G use cases. Its own description of the 5G Factory programme says deployments are progressing from individual applications towards system integration and from peripheral activities into core production processes. It is also encouraging Chinese solution providers to export successful 5G factory technologies and solutions overseas.
At the same time, China is expanding the available private-network models themselves through the new industrial 5G independent private network trials.
Private 5G remains an important part of this picture, but increasingly it is only one layer.
The bigger opportunity is the combination of private connectivity, industrial edge and cloud infrastructure, IT/OT integration, data platforms, security and AI, packaged in a way that can eventually be replicated across factories.
Changan's Chongqing factory provides a particularly large-scale example of that transition.
The question for the private-network industry is increasingly not simply how many devices can be connected over 5G, but how deeply that network can become integrated into the industrial platform that actually runs the factory.
Related Posts:
- Private Networks Technology Blog: Decoding the Reality of China’s 5G Private Network Leadership
- Private Networks Technology Blog: 5G-Advanced and Multi-Robot Collaboration in Private Networks
- Private Networks Technology Blog: Smart Port Innovation Accelerates Across China
- Private Networks Technology Blog: 5G Private Networks Driving Industry Transformation in APAC
- Private Networks Technology Blog: China Unicom has Over 10 Thousand Private 5G Networks
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