How breakthroughs spur China’s development

22 Oct, 2017 - 00:10 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Late last month, a 2 000-kilometre-long quantum fibre link, the longest and most sophisticated in the world, was launched to connect Beijing and Shanghai and provide an unhackable communications route between the cities.
During the link’s launch in Beijing, Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used Micius, the world’s first quantum communication satellite which was launched by China last year, to make the first intercontinental quantum video call and spoke with Anton Zeilinger, his Austrian counterpart, in Vienna.

The breakthrough in quantum communication is one of a number of scientific achievements made by China in the past five years.

Thanks to strong policy support and a growing pool of talent that is constantly pushing the envelope of technology, the world’s second-largest economy is rapidly being transformed from a follower to a global leader in innovation.

The shift is in line with the call by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Wednesday for more efforts to make China a country of innovators and reach the frontiers of science and technology.

Innovation is the primary force driving development, and it is the strategic underpinning for building a modernised economy, Xi said in a report delivered to the CPC’s 19th National Congress.

“We will strengthen basic research in applied sciences, launch major national science and technology projects, and prioritise innovation in key generic technologies, cutting-edge frontier technologies, modern engineering technologies, and disruptive technologies,” President Xi added.

Progress has already been made in the past five years, and China has emerged as a leader in the field of technology, with breakthroughs ranging from the maiden flight of the country’s first homegrown large passenger aircraft to the debut of the fastest train in the world, from the Beidou Navigation Satellite System, which is set to cover the world by 2020, to robotics and artificial intelligence technologies that are widely regarded as the next frontier of growth.

According to the 2017 report of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, China is the only middle-income country on the list of the world’s top 25 most innovative economies, where it is ranked 22nd.

The achievement was lauded by Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, who said: “On the whole, we have met the goal of ‘occupying a place’ in the major fields of science and technology, which lays a sound foundation for China to be an innovation powerhouse.”

A special issue of the scientific journal Nature noted that “Chinese science has been moving at breakneck speed for the past few decades, fuelled by vast infusions of cash and a rapidly growing technical workforce”.

According to Nature, China now boasts more researchers than the United States, outspends the European Union in research and development and “is on track to best all other nations in its yearly production of scientific papers”.

Bai, from CAS, commented: “Important scientific work has mushroomed in China in recent years. It is the result of years of research and development. Policy guidance, financial support and continued efforts to deepen reform have all played parts in stimulating this vitality.”

More important, according to analysts, scientific research has been efficiently commercialised, with China pouring large sums into the latter stages of the R&D process, during which discoveries are turned into products.

High-speed rail has been one of the most impressive areas of progress.

In recent years, China has built the world’s largest high-speed rail network and become a world leader in providing globally competitive high-speed products and services.

By 2020, China Railway Rolling Stock Corp, which manufacturers the country’s high-speed trains, is expected to supply new bullet trains with a maximum operating speed of 400 kilometres per hour to markets related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

After it was confirmed that Beidou, the homegrown navigation satellite system, covered the entire Asia-Pacific region in 2012, several more satellites were launched, enabling wider applications in logistics, aviation, precision farming and other industries that demand high-accuracy positioning. Earlier this month, for the first time, Beidou was used to guide a Chinese-developed regional jetliner as it successfully completed a test flight at an airport in the eastern province of Shandong.

The flight demonstrated that Beidou’s performance is on a par with similar systems produced overseas and meets internationally advanced levels in transient and quick positioning index, according to the plane’s manufacturer, Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China. – People’s Daily Online.

 

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