Data centres are the backbone of data-driven Industrie 4.0 technologies. The 2021-2023 national action plan on next-generation data centres and the “data in the east and computing in the west” infrastructure project are China’s key data-centre policy developments recently. This policy briefing outlines the key objectives and implications of this action plan and infrastructure project. Furthermore, the briefing introduces the first next-generation data centre demonstration project and sheds light on the outlook of China’s national data centre development.