Across the landscape of Sichuan and Chongqing, new connections are rapidly taking shape. Rongchang District, serving as a key node on the Chengdu-Chongqing axis and a strategic gateway for the economic circle's development, has recently formalized a strategic partnership with China Unicom Chongqing Branch. The collaboration focuses on deep integration in areas such as digital infrastructure, smart governance, and digital agriculture, aiming to establish a benchmark for digital transformation. Meanwhile, Chengdu, as the host city for the 2026 APEC Digital Week and the AI Ministers Meeting, is accelerating its journey toward becoming a leading digital innovation hub in western China. China Unicom Sichuan Branch is leveraging its robust network infrastructure, computing power foundation, and AI capabilities to support this international event and empower urban upgrading.
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has elevated the construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle to a major national regional development strategy. In 2026, China Unicom is actively serving this national strategy by establishing a coordinated regional development mechanism. The recent partnership signing and the conference hosting represent China Unicom's commitment to fulfilling its mission, fostering comprehensive connectivity across the digital, industrial, and livelihood sectors within the economic circle.
Unifying Actions: Breaking Institutional Barriers for Effective Collaboration
The Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway operates 101 pairs of trains daily, facilitating over one million passenger trips each day, making integrated communication services critically important. As early as 2021, long-distance fees for landline calls between the Sichuan and Chongqing regions were officially eliminated, setting a national precedent. However, what has truly transformed collaboration from a concept into systematic operations is the deep dismantling of institutional barriers. In 2021, China Unicom Sichuan Branch and China Unicom Chongqing Branch jointly launched the "Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle Unified Action Plan." Six years on, this unified approach has yielded tangible results across multiple fronts.
In November 2025, the two regions collaboratively advanced the Chengdu-Chongqing high-speed railway fiber optic cable project, utilizing railway ducts to deploy new types of optical cables and enriching the region's optical cable resources. The following month, the communication administration authorities of both regions convened a joint meeting, outlining plans for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, including accelerating 5G-Advanced deployment, 10G PON pilot projects, integrated computing networks, and cross-regional disaster recovery systems. From tariff unification to planning coordination and shared infrastructure development, China Unicom is transforming the "Unified Action Plan" from a document into tangible daily operational practice.
Seamless Connectivity: Ubiquitous Computing Power on Demand
As one of the eight national hub nodes for the "East-to-West Computing Resources Transfer" project, the Chengdu-Chongqing hub bears the critical responsibility of building a regional computing network. China Unicom has reserved over 200MW of AIDC computing capacity, driving the dual-city advancement through an integrated computing network. In Sichuan, the Tianfu Information Center is developing a 100MW-level intelligent computing park with a capacity of 40,000 standard racks. Phases one and two, currently supporting financial, government, and internet services, operate at over 80% utilization. The third phase's 110kV dedicated substation has entered trial operation, while the fourth phase, fully adapted for high-power intelligent computing needs, is expected to be completed by year-end. In Ya'an and the three prefectures of the western region, demonstration projects for "computing-power and electricity synergy" are being promoted, supporting Sichuan's "one zone, one belt, two nodes" computing integration strategy.
In Chongqing, the Southwest (Chongqing) Data Center Base has commissioned four data center buildings with over 8,000 racks, earning recognition as a national green data center. With reserved land and a 110kV substation under simultaneous development, the base will add over 1,000 high-density intelligent computing cabinets upon completion. Through dynamic optimization, resource delivery and business development alignment exceed 95%, and project delivery cycles have been shortened by 20%. Computing resources across the two cities are moving toward "same-city" integration. China Unicom's "Xingluo" computing scheduling platform has been fully deployed across Sichuan and Chongqing, enabling management and scheduling of diverse heterogeneous computing resources. In February 2026, the Chongqing Digital Resources Group and Sichuan Computing Cloud Technology achieved platform interoperability, facilitating cross-domain sharing and scheduling of computing resources. That same month, ten "Xinjiang Computing into Chongqing" service nodes were officially designated.
Computing infrastructure ensures sufficient and high-quality capacity, while the computing network guarantees fast and stable access. Around the two major computing clusters in Chengdu and Chongqing, China Unicom has collaboratively built a multi-tier, low-latency AINET intelligent computing optical network, establishing a 1ms ultra-low latency circle around Chengdu and Chongqing individually, and a 3ms core latency circle between the two cities. At North Sichuan Medical College, the "Medical Cloud + Remote Ultrasound" system, powered by China Unicom, guides diagnosis and treatment at Meigu County People's Hospital in Liangshan Prefecture, over 700 kilometers away. In Chongqing High-tech Zone, the 3ms latency intelligent computing network ensures real-time transmission of low-altitude patrol data, empowering smart low-altitude governance.
Empowering Industries: Technology Integration Drives Renewal Across Sectors
Infrastructure serves as the "road," while industrial applications are the "vehicles" that travel on it. China Unicom's value extends beyond building the roads; it lies in accelerating the transformation of the entire industrial ecosystem. In education, the company has partnered with Sichuan University to develop "Dachuan Zhiwen," a full-stack private AI project for universities, pioneering a private operation model for computing tokens and deploying comprehensive campus applications across teaching, research, and management. Additionally, a joint laboratory with Chongqing University is advancing research on key technologies such as 6G and artificial intelligence, establishing an integrated platform for industry, academia, research, and application.
In healthcare, China Unicom has collaborated with West China Hospital to build a big data integration platform, establishing a "cloud-based foundation + platform + standards + applications" data infrastructure. The company is also supporting Wuhan Union Hospital Chongqing Hospital in its national regional medical center informatization project. The "Smart Medical Insurance Laboratory" established in Chongqing has developed a multi-level clearing and settlement platform, strongly supporting universal health insurance coverage. In manufacturing, leveraging the national-level "Gewu" cross-industry platform, China Unicom has assisted Changan Automobile in building a comprehensive 5G-enabled digital-intelligent-AI flexible super factory, with the project being recognized as a typical case by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. To date, over 60 benchmark projects including 5G factories, future factories, and innovation demonstration factories have been established, with 19 cases included in the MIIT's 5G Factory Directory, accounting for 56% of Chongqing's total selections. The independently developed 5G+MDFC passive IoT technology is facilitating collaborative upgrades across the automotive, electronics, energy, and equipment manufacturing supply chains in both regions.
From factory floors to classrooms, from clinics to farms, digital-intelligent technology is permeating every industrial segment across Sichuan and Chongqing. From institutional coordination to computing flow, from industrial integration to livelihood services, China Unicom has spent six years translating the vision of "one integrated chessboard" into reality across the Bashan and Shushui regions. As the integration process between the two regions accelerates, benchmark projects are gradually breaking down the three major barriers of "information, solutions, and customer sources," establishing a deep collaboration mechanism. Moving forward, China Unicom Sichuan Branch and Chongqing Branch will continue to focus on model refinement, using benchmark leadership to drive overall breakthroughs and construct a new pattern of regional development. 2026 marks the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" and a critical juncture for the comprehensive acceleration of the dual-city economic circle construction. The story of the "dual-city chronicle" continues to unfold, and the digital pathways of "connection" and "access" will keep extending ever further.