TechFlow News: According to a report by the Shanghai Securities Journal on March 23, Liu Liehong, Director of China’s National Data Administration, stated at the China Development Forum 2026 Annual Conference on March 23 that China’s average daily token call volume in March reached over 140 trillion—more than a thousandfold increase from 100 billion at the beginning of 2024.
Liu Liehong noted that tokens are the smallest units for large models to process information and possess measurable, priceable, and tradable characteristics. A new value system—centered on token invocation, distribution, and settlement—is rapidly taking shape, becoming a key monetization pathway for the AI industry. He added that as China’s market-oriented allocation reform of data elements advances deeper, a virtuous cycle of “data supply → value realization” is beginning to emerge.
