In March 2026, reporting by Reuters indicated that China was expected to establish national post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards within three years. The timeline aligned with the country’s broader push to secure data against future quantum computing threats and with the 15th Five-Year Plan’s elevation of quantum technology to a core strategic industry.
According to The Quantum Insider, China was prioritizing finance and energy sectors for early adoption of quantum-resistant encryption. Wang Xiaoyun of Tsinghua University, a leading Chinese cryptography expert, indicated that the domestic PQC industry could see rapid expansion over the next three to five years.
Chinese researchers have focused on structureless lattice methods, which remove regular algebraic structures to prioritize security over computational efficiency, diverging from the structured lattice approaches used in NIST’s standardized algorithms. The ICCS program launched in February 2025 continued to accept public-key algorithm submissions through June 2026.