China technological sector financial reforms

China is implementing new financial mechanisms to direct capital toward strategic technology sectors. Initially, major banks in the Hainan free-trade zone introduced loans tied to the Depository Institutions Repurchase Rate (DR) to create market-driven lending benchmarks. This period also saw a policy shift toward using household savings and equity markets to fund advanced manufacturing, exemplified by the highly oversubscribed IPO of ChangXin Memory Technologies.

Financial institutions have since expanded specialized credit products for the artificial intelligence industry. In Guangzhou’s Haizhu District, the Bank of China, CITIC Bank, and Bank of Guangzhou have implemented “Token loans” (Token 贷). These models assess creditworthiness based on an enterprise’s consumption and production of AI tokens—the basic unit of measurement for large language models—rather than relying solely on traditional physical collateral. The Bank of China’s Guangzhou branch has launched a “Computing Power Token Loan” that evaluates credit based on token consumption, service contract values, and computing power accounts receivable. Other regional institutions, such as Zhangjiagang Rural Commercial Bank and Jiangsu Bank, have integrated computing power vouchers, efficiency, and R&D investment into their scoring systems.

This integration is spreading across the digital economy. On Alibaba’s Tmall, an “AI Space Station” allows users to purchase AI subscriptions and top up tokens from developers like Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and DeepSeek; transactions for such services reportedly increased by over 160 percent within 48 hours of certain storefront openings. Additionally, the Agricultural Bank of China and Moonshot AI have introduced an AI-native credit card, while China Telecom is trialing token packages for developers and households.