Xiaomi's co-founder and Chairman Lei Jun has, according to South China Morning Post (June 1) already started pre-research into the next generation of mobile connectivity. He mentioned 6G again at the 'Big Two' sessions in May and prepared four proposals for China’s next five-year plan. One of them is making satellite internet a strategic industry by including private companies, which would be a step toward developing 6G communications. Lei Jun later clarified that Xiaomi has no plans to launch satellites itself but that 6G will require devices that support the base stations and satellites behind the new wireless standard. The South China Morning Post said 6G is slowly becoming a buzzword among Chinese tech firms. Other companies already looking into 6G are telecom equipment maker ZTE and China Telecom, one of China’s three state-owned telecom carriers, which signed an agreement in May to research 6G together. Smartphone maker Oppo and Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei have also signalled their interest in the tech. China first started looking into 6G in 2018, making it one of the first countries to do so.