China tracks surge in geospatial information industry

by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 05, 2026

China's geospatial information industry is approaching a total value of 1 trillion yuan (about $143 billion), according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. The ministry reported that by the end of 2025 the sector is expected to generate more than 900 billion yuan in output, an increase of over 30 percent compared with 2020, and now employs more than 4 million people.

A core element of this industry is tianditu.gov.cn, the national geospatial information service platform operated by the ministry. As of Thursday, the platform had about 1.48 million registered users, authorized around 1.13 million applications, and was processing roughly 1 billion service interface accesses per day on average, supporting more than 7,000 government users and about 33,000 enterprises. Ministry officials describe the platform as an important tool for the construction of a digital China.

"Initially a basic map service, the platform has evolved into a comprehensive natural resources service base," said Chen Ping, an official from the ministry. Chen explained that the system brings together information on land use planning, geological surveys, forestry, grassland and marine resources in a unified digital environment.

"The geospatial information also helps foster emerging industries such as developing a geospatial information security application space for autonomous driving," Chen said. Under a pilot program approved by China's State Council, six cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing are testing secure uses of high-definition maps for intelligent connected vehicles. The program aims to establish a standardized system for autonomous driving maps, which are in wide use to support autonomous driving below level 3 on ordinary roads across major Chinese cities, Chen added.

The State Administration for Market Regulation has issued a taxonomy of driving automation that divides autonomous driving into six levels. For levels 0 to 2, drivers must remain in control and bear full responsibility for the vehicle, while from level 3 the automated driving system becomes the primary operator.

Several geospatial initiatives are also supporting the low-altitude economy. Zhu Guoming, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial natural resources department, said the Beidou high-precision positioning service has been used to guide drones carrying out low-altitude smart grid inspections for China Southern Power Grid.

To address data security issues associated with low-altitude activities, Guangdong has introduced review requirements for navigation electronic maps for flying cars. Zhu noted that authorities have completed several reviews of low-altitude navigation maps under this framework.