China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
- Chinese name
- 工业和信息化部
- Unified Social Credit Code
11100000000019692W- Website
- 5149608258
MIIT refers to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (工业和信息化部), a central government ministry that oversees industrial policy, telecommunications and the information sector, and related standardization work; here it is acting as the initiating authority for a proposed mandatory national standard project, issuing a formal notice to solicit public comments on a “metaverse classification and identification” standard focused on digital human identity identifiers, meaning MIIT is positioning itself to define a nationally recognized identification framework for digital humans in metaverse-style environments (including how identifiers are structured, registered, managed, and applied) so that digital human entities can be consistently distinguished, authenticated, and governed across platforms and deployments.
Multiple reports say that on January 23, 2026, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice launching a public consultation on a proposed mandatory national standard project titled “Metaverse Classification and Identification: Requirements for Digital Human Identity Identification” (元宇宙分类与标识数字人身份标识要求). The planned standard would define an identity marking framework for digital humans used in metaverse contexts, including rules for how identifiers are structured, registered, managed, and displayed, with the goal of making each digital human uniquely identifiable (often described as “one entity, one code”), improving traceability, and clarifying accountability and related security/management requirements while MIIT collects public feedback during the consultation period.
2026
- 2026-01-23: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicly issued a notice soliciting opinions on the mandatory national standard project Metaverse Classification and Identification: Requirements for Digital Human Identity Identification , formally elevating digital humans from an application topic to a regulated identity-bearing entity within metaverse governance; the proposal defined digital humans as requiring standardized classification, identity identifiers, registration mechanisms, and management rules to ensure traceability, authentication, and cross-platform recognisability, signaling MIIT’s intent to treat digital humans as governable digital subjects rather than informal visual agents.
- 2026-01-13: MIIT released the Action Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of Industrial Internet Platforms (2026–2028) , in which “smart inspection digital humans” were explicitly named as a core category of industrial-scenario intelligent agents alongside process automation assistants and embodied intelligence equipment; within this policy framing, digital humans were positioned as semi-autonomous operational agents capable of perception, decision-making, execution, and iterative optimisation inside industrial systems, marking a shift from representational or interface-oriented digital humans to task-bearing agents embedded in industrial workflows.
2025
- 2025-12: MIIT-affiliated standardisation bodies, including the Artificial Intelligence Standardization Technical Committee, advanced sectoral standards such as Digital Human Service Capability Technical Specifications and related AI product service benchmarks, consolidating prior fragmented guidance into measurable capability requirements; these standards framed digital humans in terms of service delivery, interaction quality, and functional reliability, reinforcing MIIT’s role in moving digital humans from experimental deployments toward certifiable, industrial-grade products.
- 2025-09: In multiple national policy documents jointly issued or endorsed by MIIT, including “AI + Manufacturing” and industrial digital transformation guidance, digital humans were repeatedly identified as promotable application forms in intelligent customer service, digital interpretation, and service-oriented manufacturing; within these texts, MIIT treated digital humans as standardized functional components of enterprise digitalization rather than as media or entertainment artifacts.
- 2025-02: MIIT released or endorsed the Guidelines for the Construction of an Artificial Intelligence Safety Governance Standard System (2025) , explicitly listing digital humans among AI product categories subject to scenario-based safety and security requirements; this positioned digital humans within the same governance envelope as intelligent terminals and AI services, emphasizing controllability, identity clarity, and risk prevention.
2024
- 2024: MIIT leadership statements and official disclosures tied to the China Digital Human Development Report (2024) emphasized the need to strengthen foundational standards for digital human terminology, management, services, and digital identity interaction; this marked the consolidation phase in which MIIT framed digital humans as a long-term industrial and governance domain requiring coordinated standards across technology, security, and application layers.