News on China's scientific and technological development.

China's spending on research and development (R&D) increased 17.9 percent year on year to 1.02 trillion yuan (162.24 billion U.S. dollars), according to data released Friday. The rise comes amid the country's efforts to build an innovation-driven economy.

R&D expenditure represents 1.97 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year, up from the 1.84 percent and 1.75 percent registered in 2011 and 2010, respectively, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

China's annual R&D spending grew on average by more than 20 percent for six straight years since 2006 before slowing slightly last year, said a report issued earlier by the NBS.

In 2012, a total of 217,105 invention patents to domestic and overseas applicants were authorized, up 26.1 percent from the previous year, the State Intellectual Property Office said Thursday.

Of the total invention patents, 63.2 percent were granted to domestic applicants.

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China's largest atomic energy developer on Friday announced the successful installation of a domestically produced uranium enrichment centrifuge for industrial use.

The centrifuge was built in a uranium enrichment plant in northwest China's city of Lanzhou, according to a statement from the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

Uranium centrifuges are necessary to obtain concentrated U235, which is used as fuel for nuclear power plants.

Many countries are developing such devices, although few have had success with industrialized production.

The installation of the centrifuge marks a strategic accomplishment in terms of safeguarding the sustainable development of China's nuclear power industry, the statement said.

The CNNC previously said that it invested a total of 1.75 billion yuan (280 million U.S. dollars) in independent research and development projects in 2011.

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Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. were granted the most invention patents on the Chinese mainland in 2012, the intellectual property authority said Thursday.

Gan Shaoning, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), said at a news briefing that China granted 2,734 invention patents to Huawei, and 2,727 to ZTE, two telecommunication giants, last year.

A Shenzhen-based subsidiary of the Taiwanese Foxconn ranked third, with 1,099 patents. China's auto makers BYD and Chery were also among the top 10 company patent holders.

Eight of the top 10 are in the private sector, indicating robust innovation vitality of the country's private companies.
A total of 217,105 invention patents to domestic and overseas applicants were authorized in 2012, up 26.1 percent from the previous year, according to SIPO figures.

Of the total invention patents, 143,847 were granted to domestic applicants, up 28 percentage points year on year. Companies played a more important role in technological innovation last year, accounting for 54.7 percent of domestic patent holders, up 2.8 percentage points year on year. Southern Guangdong Province was home to most patent holders last year, followed by Beijing and east China's Jiangsu Province.

However, Gan said China's invention patents are still behind foreign countries in areas including optics, transportation, audio-visual technologies, medical and pharmaceutical technologies, semiconductor and engines. China has a lot to do to boost technological innovation in a number of key areas, Gan said.

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Xi’an Sino-Meiman Laser Tech. Co., Ltd. has developed a kind of Kilo-Watt Optical Fiber Output Semiconductor Laser which is characterized with small size, long service life and high stability. With electro-optic conversion efficiency approaching 50% and focused spot smaller than 2mm, the laser can be applied to laser materials processing and scientific research, including metal cladding, metal surface hardening and surface repairing.

The fiber output semiconductor laser, namely SMFCLD-X00 fiber laser, with the focused spot of less than 2mm and high luminance, realize the electrical to optical efficiency of nearly 50%. In field of application, the laser overcomes the restriction to space by space coupling semiconductor laser, and can be widely used in small parts cladding.

The high-power fiber laser output semiconductor laser, developed by Xi’an Sino-Meiman Laser Tech. Co., Ltd., will contribute to further development of China’s high-end equipment manufacturing.

Xi’an Sino-Meiman Laser Tech. Co., Ltd. is established as a hi-tech technology and industry company engaged in producing high-power fiber laser. Since the foundation, it has developed series of industrial near-SMF fiber laser of 200W~1000W which is the industrialization of SMHPFL-X00 products category. It is one of the few domestic enterprises which are capable of producing fiber laser of above 500W and it leads the technology state in China.

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China will speed up building a deep-sea scientific observation network and an observatory in the Antarctic before 2015, according to a development plan on the country's infrastructure construction for key science and technology projects from 2012 to 2030.

The plan was released on the Chinese central government's website on March 4. It targets the enhancement of the country's innovation capacity and sets goals for the country's science and technology development for the coming two decades.

The plan lists 16 important projects to be accelerated before 2015, which will be given priority in financial and political support.

The deep-sea observation network project will provide important information in guaranteeing the country's marine security, exploring deep-sea energy and resources, monitoring the marine environment and forecasting marine disasters.

From 2011 to 2015, about 50 key science and technology projects are scheduled to be launched. Before 2030, China will focus on seven areas including sustainable energy and space exploration to boost scientific and technological innovation.

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China spent a record 1 trillion yuan on research and development in 2012, of which 74 percent came from companies, said the minister of science and technology on Friday.

China's research personnel reached 3.2 million in 2012, the highest across the world, said Wan Gang, who doubles as vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The value of technical contracts inked last year in China exceeded 600 billion yuan while the aggregate output value of high-tech industries topped 10 trillion yuan, he said.

Calling 2012 "a landmark year" for China's science and technology development, Wan said that a special team had been assembled by the State Council to lead reform of the country's scientific and technological system to strengthen top-level design for this regard.

Since the ministry introduced online evaluation and administrative approval of research projects, domestic researchers are estimated to have saved 70 million yuan in total on traveling expenses and 60,000 work days annually, according to Wan.

Wan said, "To build China into an innovative country, I think we must confidently stick to the path of self-dependent innovation with Chinese characteristics, and at the same time, broaden our horizons to learn from foreign countries and share our experiences with others."

The key task for his ministry is to facilitate original innovation, promote rational deployment and sharing of scientific know-how and equipment, step up training of young researchers and skilled personnel, and to improve the environment for research and development, he added.

Research on basic science, frontier technologies and commonly needed spheres will receive more support from central government public finances. Meanwhile, efforts will be made to improve the innovation capability of small and medium-sized and micro enterprises, Wan said.

He went onto say that China will remain zero-tolerant over academic fraud and crack down on fabrication.

In early 2011, the ministry revoked the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award given in 2005 to Li Liansheng, former professor of Xi'an Jiaotong University, due to plagiarism and fabrication of data in Li's winning project.

"We will seriously deal with every public whistle-blowing and name and shame those responsible without flinching," Wan promised.

Asked about the smoggy weather that has plagued a large swath of the Chinese mainland since late last year, he said a fundamental way to solve the problem is to speed up the transformation of China's economic growth patterns.

According to the minister, "China should boost research on green and clean production technologies and facilitate the development of key equipment in sewage disposal. Chinese can retrieve clean water and blue skies only through having a greener way of life and production."

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China has mastered braking technology to stop the world's fastest trains that travel a maximum speed of 500 kilometers per hour (km.p.h.), a railway scientist said on Thursday.

The eddy-current braking testing system has been completed and put into use, Li Heping, a senior researcher of China Academy of Railway Sciences, told Xinhua News Agency in an exclusive interview.

Eddy-current braking, a high-end technology for rail transportation, is used in high-speed trains traveling at 200 km.p.h. or above. The technology is under development in countries that have high-speed railways.

Chinese researchers can make dynamic simulation to brake high-speed trains at a maximum speed of 500 km.p.h., and launch testing research of eddy-current braking in all speeds and situations, he said. Li noted that China is internationally advanced in overall technologies of high-speed trains.

"Chinese high-speed railways are safe. I, as a researcher, travel by high-speed trains whenever possible. I hope fellow countrymen have confidence in the safety of China's high-speed trains," said Li.

The country's first high-speed railway, linking the Chinese capital Beijing and the neighboring port city Tianjin, was inaugurated on Aug. 1, 2008, with trains traveling at a speed that could reach 350 km per hour.

In December last year, the high-speed line linking Beijing and Guangzhou -- the world's longest -- went into service, bringing China's total high-speed rail network in operation to a length of more than 9,300 km.

China plans to have 18,000 km of high-speed lines in operation by 2015.

Tests show China's new-generation high-speed trains can run as fast as 486.1 km.p.h., a record high in the world.
Li also disclosed China will put dual-powered high-speed trains into operation next year, with self-owned intellectual properties. The trains, driven by electric force and cells, will mainly be used for inter-city routes traveling 200-250 km.p.h., leaving no emissions.

Dual-powered trains are fueled with cells in areas without electric traction. "The technology will fill the technology gap in the world and mark a major breakthrough in the research of high-speed train dynamics," said Li.

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Einstein railed against the possibility of spooky action at a distance because it violates relativity. Now Chinese physicists have clocked it travelling more than four orders of magnitude faster than light

One of the strangest concepts in quantum mechanics is the notion of entanglement. This is the idea that two quantum particles can be so deeply linked that they share the same existence. When that happens, a measurement on one immediately influences the other, regardless of the distance between them.

This “spooky action at a distance”, as Einstein called it, has puzzled and fascinated physicists since it was first discussed in the 1930s. Einstein initially used it as evidence of the failure of quantum mechanics since this instantaneous action clearly seemed to violate relativity.

Later, physicists realised there was no conflict because the “spooky action” cannot be used to send information faster than the speed of light. However, important questions remain about the nature of entanglement and spooky action. “If the spooky action does exist, what is its speed?” ask Juan Yin and pals at the University of Science and Technology of China in Shanghai.

Today, they reveal the answer. They say spooky action travels at least four orders of magnitude faster than light.

Measuring the speed of spooky action is no trivial task. The method is to create a pair of entangled particle photons and separate them by a significant distance, in this case 15 km or so. The experiment involves performing a measurement on one photon and then timing how long it takes for the other photon to be influenced.

Of course, this is tricky to do with a single pair of photons because of the tiny periods of time involved and the rotation of the Earth which moves the experiment by distances that are significant over these time scales.

So the trick is to create a stream of entangled photons and to measure the spooky action continuously for 12 hours or more. If the experiment is aligned in an East-West direction, the contribution from the Earth’s rotation should drop out over that time.

Juan and co have perfected this technique by sending photons through the atmosphere from a fish farm near Qinghai Lake in the Tibetan Plateau. (We looked at their work last year when the same team smashed the distance record for teleporting photons using similar gear.)

They say the results are clear but do not measure the speed of spooky action directly. Instead, the results place a lower bound on how fast it must be. The answer is that it is at least four orders of magnitude faster than light, and may still turn out to be instantaneous, as quantum mechanics predicts.

If this result sounds familiar, it’s because a European team based at the University of Geneva in Switzerland carried out a similar experiment in 2008 getting a similar result. However, this turned out to contain a loophole which allowed the results to be explained without entanglement. “All previous experiments along this direction have locality loopholes and thus can be explained without having to invoke any `spooky action’ at all,” say Juan and co.

Now the Chinese team claim to have closed this loophole and say theirs is the first legitimate measurement of the speed of spooky action. It’ll be interesting to see whether they can raise this bound in future and find out how fast they can go.

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"Jiaolong is entering a trial period ahead of a busy schedule," said Liu Feng, director of the China National Deep Sea Center.

Liu said the first dive will be in the South China Sea in June, for scientific research, while the rest will likely be conducted in two areas in the western Pacific in July, pending approval by the International Seabed Authority for China's application to explore for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts.

A specialist team will monitor the performance of Jiaolong, or River Dragon, and carry out any upgrades as required, he added. Jiaolong reached its record depth of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June, proving China's capacity to explore 99.8 percent of the world's ocean floor.

Liu, from the China National Deep Sea Center, said Jiaolong will play an important role in exploring the depths and enhancing our knowledge of what lies beneath.

After the submersible's missions last year, technicians made a series of changes, including adjusting the lighting for photography and ensuring sharper video images.

"These will all be tested out in our June dive in the South China Sea," Liu said. That mission, he said, will also see scientists dive with oceanauts.

Jiaolong is about 8.2 meters long, 3 meters wide and 3.4 meters high, weighing nearly 22 metric tons and can hold three people. After the South China Sea dive, the submersible will go to the Pacific to conduct a geological survey. It will also collect biological and mineral samples, conduct environmental studies and prepare for mining operations.

The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association obtained sole exploration rights to prospect for pollymetallic nodules, rocks with iron deposits, in the east Pacific in 2001.

In February, the association got an initial green light to explore for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts in the west Pacific from the Legal and Technical Commission under the International Seabed Authority. "These areas will be a long-term target zone for Jiaolong to study biological diversity and geological features," Liu said.

According to the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), China will construct a 4,000-ton mothership for deep-sea submersibles and a vessel for ocean scientific research.

To speed up exploration, another submersible with a designed depth of 4,000 meters is also under construction. Liu said China should research and develop a series of deep-sea submersibles that can operate at various depths.

He also called for international cooperation. "We are open to the world and welcome international scientists to join our operations.

"What we do is not cheap, no single person, institution, or even a country can bear the whole burden. Sharing experiences and facilities is the solution," he said.

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