News on China's scientific and technological development.

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China's manned deep-diving submersible, the Jiaolong, will try a 7,000-meter dive in the Pacific Ocean between June and July this year, Liu Cigui, director of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said Sunday.

Liu told Xinhua before the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, that all preparatory work for the submersible's 7,000-meter dive is now going on smoothly.

The Chinese manned submersible succeeded in diving 5,188 meters below the sea in the Pacific Ocean between July and August last year, enabling China to conduct scientific surveys in 70 percent of the world's seabed areas.

China's maritime authority shoulders heavy tasks carrying out scientific research on oceans this year, said Liu, who is also a deputy to the NPC.

He said China will continue to proceed with oceanic surveys and environmental investigations and push forward legislation on oceans this year.

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An extension of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant was constructed in December 2010

The first China-engineered improved third-generation nuclear power plant will be showcased in Putian county, Fujian province, by as early as 2013, Chen Bingde, chief engineer of Nuclear Power Institute of China and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, told China Daily on Saturday.

The institute is a division of China National Nuclear Corp, the largest State-owned nuclear enterprise in China. The company built the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, China's first, in 1991.

"The Putian plant will adopt China-developed nuclear technology model ACP100, which is considered much safer and having higher energy efficiency compared to current second- and third-generation plants," said Chen.

He said it will have some improved third-generation nuclear power facility's features, including smaller size, shorter construction time and higher safety level.

The new technology's final aim is to eliminate the emergency evacuation zone of a nuclear plant, he said. The construction time is expected to be shortened from the current 50 months to 30-40 months.

"In the near future, nuclear plants can be built right next to cities," he explained. The concept of the new plant is a 100,000-kilowatt-grade nuclear power facility, with very low cost.

After the Japan radiation leaks about a year ago, the demand for safer nuclear power plants has become stronger worldwide. Fourth-generation nuclear technology is now being studied by many countries, according to Chen.

South Korea leads the trend. Seoul is planning to acquire a construction license by the middle of this year. The United States has stronger theoretical development, while China performs better on the experimental aspects, added Chen.

He said China's nuclear plants are safe. After the Japanese accident, many third-generation reactors underwent 25 measures to improve safety, including strengthening the protection wall and adding back-up electricity power generators. Some second-generation reactors were upgraded with new technology.

Most of China's nuclear technology was imported from other countries, such as the US, France and Russia.

Only the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant applied China-developed technology, he said, and "it has maintained safe and stable operation for 20 years.

"We have exported Qinshan plant technology to Pakistan, and some other developing countries will be our next targets."

However, China still falls behind in some core technologies compared to Western countries.
"If China wants to export our own nuclear technology, we need to develop our own core technology and get rid of the dependence on foreign technology."

The China National Nuclear Corp invested 1.75 billion yuan ($278 million) on research and development last year, a 20 percent year-on-year increase.

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China will move to develop new competitive advantages in the mechanical, electronics and high-technology industries, said Deputy Minister of Commerce Jiang Yaopin on Wednesday.

The government "will speed up the cultivation of new competitive advantages supported by technology, branding, quality and service," said Jiang at a two-day National Commercial Work Conference on the mechanical, electronics and high-technology sectors held in Zhengzhou, Henan province, that ended on Wednesday.

"Efforts will be given to building up vehicle and shipping export bases as well as innovation bases for technology to promote trade," he said. Jiang added that "200 export bases for 25 industries and 2,000 companies attached to the bases will be established during the 12th Five-Year Plan", which runs from 2011 to 2015.

With overseas demand contracting and costs rising, fast growth in the export of mechanical, electronic and high-technology products could be difficult to achieve this year, Jiang said.

Exports of these products last year reached $1.08 trillion, accounting for 57 percent of all exports and remaining the largest export category for the 17th year, according to the ministry.

Huo Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank of the Ministry of Commerce, said the industry was experiencing a "more challenging situation" than other export industries.

Huo noted that the industry's export growth last year was four percentage points lower than China's overall export growth of 20 percent, and its share in total exports fell from 59 percent to 57 percent.

The weak global recovery is mainly responsible for sluggish demand for the sector's products, especially industrial equipment and machinery, Huo said.

"In addition, rapidly increasing costs for the industry, including raw materials and labor, reduced the competitiveness of exporters. Meanwhile, insufficient credit support left private exporters, the driving force of the industry, struggling for funding," he said.

Despite the challenging situation, China's exports and imports of these products still have "great potential, since China's exports of mechanical and electronic products only account for 15 percent of the global market," Jiang said.

"China's imports of mechanical and electronic products will reach $4 trillion during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, implying a promising market scope."

However, the government "needs to stabilize its export policy and increase support to key manufacturers such as those making vehicles and parts, which have great export competitiveness", said Huo.

Jiang said that the ministry will promote imports of mechanical, electronic and high-technology products to balance its trade, while urging the US and EU to ease curbs on high-technology exports to China.

"The government may increase the imports of high-end equipment to supply high-end manufacturers," Huo said.

Zhou Dewen, chairman of the Wenzhou Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Association, said manufacturers of mechanical devices urgently need to develop new markets.

"In Wenzhou, many manufactures of mechanical devices saw sales drop last year and they expect the same pressure in 2012, due to shrinking markets in European countries and North America", said Zhou.

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Chinese engineers have developed a new type of bullet train that can withstand temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius, a researcher familiar with the train's development said Sunday.

Li Heping, a research fellow with the China Academy of Railway Sciences (CARS), told Xinhua on the sidelines of the annual session of the 11th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, which opened Saturday.

The prototype of the new bullet train was developed by China CNR Corporation Limited, the country's second largest train maker, said Li, who is also a member of the CPPCC National Committee.

Currently, the new bullet train is under safety evaluation and tests by the CARS, Li said.

"We demand bullet trains running in severe cold areas withstand the test of temperature as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius and such requirements are very stringent," he said.

According to Li, component parts, material and the control system equipped with the bullet train must pass all necessary tests under an ultra-low temperature environment before putting into operation.

If the new bullet train passes all tests, it is expected to debut in the Harbin-Dalian rail line, in northeast China, at the end of this year, Li said.

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The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC) and Boeing on Tuesday signed an agreement to jointly promote energy saving and emission reduction in the civil aviation industry.

According to the agreement, the two sides will together establish a technology center for this green drive in Beijing. The facility will be dedicated to the research of improving fuel's burning efficiency and cutting down greenhouse gas emissions in the global airline industry.

Sources with COMAC told Xinhua that the agreement indicated that global participants in the competitive airline industry can seek cooperation to address common challenges so as to benefit passengers and the world's environment as a whole.

As the world's two biggest civil aviation markets, the United States and China both opposed a unilateral move by the EU to tax airlines for their carbon emissions.

According to the agreement, the two companies will also cooperate with China's research institutes and universities in fields including sustainable bio-fuel and telecommunication infrastructure for the airline industry.

It is estimated that China's air travel market will grow to 1.5 billion passengers a year by 2030, from some 300 million passengers this year.

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The European Union will probably launch an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into imports of Chinese photovoltaic solar panels soon, said Li Zhi, director of the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports & Exports of the Ministry of Commerce.

The possible case comes as domestic manufacturers are already embroiled in an investigation from the United States.

"There is a high possibility that the EU will investigate claims that Chinese companies are selling solar cells and modules at unfairly low prices and receiving government subsidies," said Li.

"But we have readied ourselves for the case."

Reports in the foreign media said solar panel makers in Germany are trying to gather support for the EU to launch an investigation against alleged price dumping by their Chinese counterparts in Europe markets.

"The EU has accepted the case, but it hasn't made any decision so far," said Li, referring to the announcement of the investigation.

Although China has sent a delegation to consult with the EU in an attempt to convince the body that Chinese companies haven't been dumping goods in Europe, the EU is highly likely to place the case on file for investigation shortly, she said.

"This is, unfortunately, bad news for the Chinese industry."

Late in 2011, the US Commerce Department announced it was conducting an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese solar-panel makers and exporters, responding to a petition by US manufacturers, led by the US arm of SolarWorld AG, one of Germany's largest makers of solar products.

This is also the first such case involving China's clean-energy industry, and those lodging the case have asked for anti-dumping and countervailing duties of more than 100 percent.

Chinese officials have said that the US move is simply trade protectionism.

An EU investigation, if implemented, will deal a huge blow to Chinese manufacturers, said experts.

"If the EU barred Chinese imports the effect would be devastating, especially at a time when the profits of Chinese manufacturers are being squeezed," said Gao Hongling, deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance. "To be frank, we are not optimistic about the case."

It is estimated more than 80 percent of China's solar cell-related exports go to the European market. In 2010, shipments of Chinese solar panels reached $30.5 billion.

"There are two reasons why the EU has not made any announcement. First, they are still watching the progress of the US case, and second, they are researching and studying how to make a case," said Li.

A preliminary ruling on the US case was originally scheduled for March 2, but has been delayed indefinitely.

"Although accepting and studying the case does not naturally lead to an investigation, the results are unlikely to be positive," Li said.

The European debt crisis and increased competition have resulted in a wave of bankruptcies in the European solar-panel industry.

"They (the US and the EU) are jealous of the rapid progress that China has made in the clean-energy industry," said Liu Hanyuan, chairman of the board of directors of the Sichuan-based Tongwei Group Ltd.

Last year, the private company signed a contract to undertake a photovoltaic solar energy project in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with an investment of 26 billion yuan ($4 billion).

"They are afraid that the newcomer will lead the industry worldwide someday so they planned to start this investigation," said Liu.

European enterprises have received government subsidies to aid research and development in the new-energy sector. Some commentators say those subsidies may have violated World Trade Organization rules.

Since the outbreak of the debt crisis, the eurozone nations led by Germany and Italy have reduced subsidies for the photovoltaic industry. The move has led to a rapid decrease in demand for the products in the region, the largest market for the products worldwide, and has resulted in fiercer competition.

"This (the solar cell case) is only the beginning," Li said.

As the European debt crisis spreads and Chinese companies increase their competitiveness and industrial capacity, they will have to face more trade-remedy cases from the EU in the high-technology and clean-energy sectors, said Li.

On Friday, the European Commission lowered its growth forecast for the eurozone as a whole, predicting the region's economy will probably shrink 0.3 percent in 2012.

The commission also said the region faces a mild recession this year but that the situation could deteriorate further.

"When the economy is fragile, trade frictions come out more easily," said Li.

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Beijing Jingneng Thermal Power Co Ltd， one of the capital city's largest coal-fired heating
and power plants， is located beside Lianshi Lake in Shijingshan district，about 20 kilometers west of
Tian'anmen Square.

Beijing is to take action to make its coal-fired power plants and heating facilities go green amid public concern over the city's poor air quality, said a government official.

Zhang Gong, director of Beijing municipal development and reform commission, said that an estimated 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) will be invested to switch the city's coal-fired power plants and heating facilities to natural gas.

"We want to make sure that power plants and heating facilities will be fueled by natural gas in the coming three to four years, reducing the use of coal as much as possible," Zhang said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress.

Zhang said the move is set to improve Beijing's air quality and ease public concern over PM2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which can be hazardous after reaching a certain concentration.

Emissions from coal-fired power plants and heating facilities, as well as from the 5 million cars running in Beijing, are a major source of PM2.5 in the capital, according to research conducted by the municipal government.

Coal consumption in Beijing was around 26.3 million tons in 2011, with coal-fired heating and power plants accounting for 73 percent. The remainder was for industrial use, Zhang said.

"So reducing the use of coal is our priority to cut the concentration of PM2.5 in the city," he said, adding Beijing will use more green energy in the near future.

PM2.5 has been put higher up the government agenda amid growing concern over poor air quality in China's big cities.

According to a statement by the State Council at the end of February, the four municipalities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing - and 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions - the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region - will monitor PM2.5 this year.

More than 100 smaller cities will adopt the new air quality standards in 2013. The statement said the standards will be extended to all cities by 2015.

Beijing has been releasing the data on the concentration of PM2.5 to the public since January.

Replacing coal-fired plants with natural gas-fueled ones will make significant contribution toward improving air quality, said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization.

"However, it may take longer than expected," Ma said.

He said Beijing is actually a relatively small consumer of coal compared with its neighbors in Hebei province and Tianjin.

"The hard work done by Beijing alone is not going to improve the overall air quality unless the neighboring cities also make an effort," he said.

Zhang from the reform and development commission of Beijing said that the experience of Western countries shows that improving air quality is a long and complicated battle.

"The government is no longer focusing solely on the economic growth of the city. We want to have sustainable development and create a livable city for the people," he said, adding that is the reason that the government has set an annual target of 8 percent GDP growth during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) instead of the double-digit growth of previous years.

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Despite difficult economic conditions, international patent filings under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) set a new record in 2011 with 181,900 applications – a growth of 10.7% on 2010 and the fastest growth since 2005.1 China, Japan and the United States of America (US) accounted for 82% of the total growth (annex 1). According to WIPO, Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corporation was the biggest filer of PCT applications in 2011.

“The recovery in international patent filings that we saw in 2010 gained strength in 2011,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “This underlines the important role played by the PCT system in a world where innovation is an increasingly important feature of economic strategy. It also shows that companies have been continuing to innovate in 2011 – reassuring news in times of persistent economic uncertainty.”

Attesting to the rapid growth of the PCT system, 2011 also saw the filing of the two millionth PCT application, by US-based mobile technology company Qualcomm.

Among the top filing countries, PCT applications from China (+33.4%), Japan (+21%), Canada (+8.3%), the Republic of Korea (+8%) and the US (+8%) saw the fastest growth in 2011. European countries witnessed a mixed performance, with Switzerland (+7.3%), France (+5.8%), Germany (+5.7%) and Sweden (+4.6%) experiencing growth, and the Netherlands (-14%), Finland (-2.7%), Spain (-2.7%) and the United Kingdom (-1%) seeing declines. The large middle-income economies of the Russian Federation (+20.8%), Brazil (+17.2%) and India (+11.2%) recorded double-digit filing growth.

The US with 48,596 filings remains the largest user of the PCT system, followed by Japan (38,888), Germany (18,568) and China (16,406). However, the US (-0.7%) and Germany (-0.5%) saw drop in their shares of total filings, while China (+1.5) and Japan (+1.8) each increased their share by more than a percentage point.

Top applicants
ZTE Corporation of China with 2,826 published applications overtook Panasonic Corporation of Japan (2,463) as the top PCT applicant in 2011 (annex 2).2 Huawei Technologies, Co. of China (1,831) ranks third, followed by Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (1,755) of Japan and Robert Bosch Corporation (1,518) of Germany. Each of the top five applicants saw double-digit growth in published PCT applications. Five Japanese companies – Panasonic, Sharp, Toyota, NEC, and Mitsubishi – feature in the top 15-list.

The University of California, with 277 applications published in 2011, is the largest filer among educational institutions, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (179), the University of Texas System (127), Johns Hopkins University (111) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (103). US universities account for 30 of the top-50 educational institutions, followed by Japan and the Republic of Korea with 7 institutions each (annex 3).

PCT filings by fields of technology
Digital communications with 11,574 (or 7.1% of total) published applications remained the field of technology accounting for the largest share of total PCT applications in 2011, followed by electronic machinery (6.9%), medical technology (6.6%) and computer technology (6.4%).3

Most technology fields experienced growth in patenting in 2011. Electronic machinery (23.2%) saw the fastest growth, but 11 other fields also experienced double-digits growth (annex 4). Only 4 fields saw a decline in filings, including basic communication processes (-5.9%), organic fine chemistry (-4.1%), and pharmaceuticals (-1.9%).

The PCT system facilitates the process of seeking patent protection in multiple countries. It simplifies this process by postponing the requirement to file a separate application in each jurisdiction until after a centralized processing and initial patentability evaluation have taken place. Examination of the patentability of the invention in national offices and the related expenses are postponed, in the majority of cases, by up to 18 months – or even longer in some offices – as compared to direct patent filings. The PCT system now has 144 member states. Annex 5 presents total PCT filings from all member states from 2007 to 2011.

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Two Chinese scientists were granted a top U.S. award Tuesday for innovative research that led to a new therapeutic approach to acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

Wang Zhenyi, 88, and Chen Zhu, 59, won the Seventh Szent Gyorgyi Prize, which was established by the U.S. National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR).

By combining traditional Chinese medicine with Western medicine, the two scientists created dramatic improvement in the "five-year disease-free" survival rate of APL patients -- from approximately 25 percent to 95 percent. Their therapy is now a standard for APL treatment throughout the world and has turned one of the most fatal diseases into a highly curable one.

"The Szent Gyorgyi Prize is about breakthroughs in cancer research, breakthroughs that are making possible new approaches to treating cancer, breakthroughs that are getting millions around the world promises, raising our hopes that cancer will be cured," NFCR President Franklin Salisbury told audience at the award ceremony.

A clinical researcher at the Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai in the early 1980s, Wang performed the first successful therapy on APL patients using all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), which significantly increased the survival rate of APL patients.

Chen, Wang's former student, made major contributions to the identification of the molecular mechanisms of both ATRA and arsenic trioxide in the APL. He also demonstrated in clinical trials that arsenic trioxide, a compound used as a traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2,400 years, is effective against the APL.

Since the 1990s, Wang and Chen have worked together to conduct clinical trials combining ATRA and arsenic trioxide to treat APL patients.

"I fully understand that any achievement is the result of team work and very often continuous efforts of generations," said Chen, who is also China's health minister.

The NFCR is a leading charity dedicated to funding cancer research and public education relating to cancer prevention, earlier diagnosis, better treatments and, ultimately, cures for cancer.

Since 1973, the NFCR has provided about 300 million U.S. dollars in direct support to discovery-oriented cancer research focused on understanding how and why cells become cancerous, and on public education related to cancer prevention, detection, and treatment.

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Assembly of the antineutrino detectors in the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment
at the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group power plant in southern China. The image shows
the light sensors recording the neutrino interactions and the acrylic target vessels.

Chinese and American physicists have made a pivotal breakthrough in the study of neutrinos, which may explain the predominance of matter over antimatter in the universe.

The research on the subatomic particles, which was conducted at a nuclear power plant in south China, is expected to define the future of particle physics.

The findings come from the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment, which was conducted close to the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong Province.

Based on data collected from two powerful nuclear reactors, multinational scientists have been able to confirm and measure a third type of neutrino oscillation, Wang Yifang, a co-spokesperson for the experiment and head of the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said at a press conference Thursday in Beijing.

Neutrinos, the wispy particles that flooded the universe in the earliest moments after the Big Bang, are continually produced in the hearts of stars and and other nuclear reactions.

Traveling at close to the speed of light, the three basic neutrino "flavors" -- electron, muon, and tau neutrinos, as well as their corresponding antineutrinos -- mix together and oscillate. This activity, however, is extremely difficult to detect.

Two types of oscillation, solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillation, were confirmed in experiments conducted in the 1960s and 1990s, while the third type of oscillation had not been detected prior to the Daya Bay experiment.

From last December, the scientists in the Daya Bay experiment observed tens of thousands of interactions of electron antineutrinos caught by six detectors installed in the mountains adjacent to the powerful nuclear reactors, Wang said.

The data revealed for the first time the strong signal of the effect that the scientists were searching for -- a so-called "mixing angle" named theta one third, a new type for neutrino oscillation, he said.

"It is surprisingly large," Wang said. "Our precise measurement will complete the understanding of the neutrino oscillation and pave the way for the future understanding of matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe."

Scientists believe the intense heat of the Big Bang should have forged equal amounts of matter and its "mirror image" antimatter. But as we live in a universe composed overwhelmingly of matter today, physicists have been puzzled by the apparent "disappearance" of antimatter.

The findings have been submitted to the Physical Review Letters for publication, Wang said.

Chinese physicists proposed to look for the third type of neutrino oscillation by studying neutrinos produced by nuclear reactors and measure the amplitude of the oscillation due to the least-known mixing angle denoted by theta one-three, said Zhao Guangda, a CAS academician and director general of the China Society of High Energy Physics.

Zhao said the value of theta one-three would "determine the future of particle physics."

"The mystery of why antimatter disappears can be solved," Zhao said.

Co-spokesperson Kam-Biu Luk, a lead physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley, said the study results would also represent a major contribution to understanding the role of neutrinos in the evolution of basic kinds of matter in the earliest moments after the Big Bang.

"We've had extraordinary success in detecting the number of electron antineutrinos that disappear as they travel from the reactors to the detectors two kilometers away," Luk said.

"The Daya Bay experiment is of crucial scientific significance, leading to a bright future for particle physics," said CAS academician Zhan Wenlong, who is also vice CAS president and president of the Chinese Physical Society.

China and the United States launched the Daya Bay experiment in 2006. It involves collaboration of 250 researchers from 39 global institutes including the IHEP, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Tsinghua University and Charles University in Prague."