News on China's scientific and technological development.

Hendrik_2000 said:

Aerospace Science and Technology Institute of the 508 Institute of the geostationary orbit ultra-high resolution camera into the development phase?
This will be useful in real time tracking for ASBM I assume this is intended for geostationary satellite?

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taxiya said:

Interesting, what is the resolution of gaofen 4? everything else equal, this new thing will be 9 times higher in resolution.

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AssassinsMace said:

Remember how Google before it was kicked out of China treated its Chinese employees as if they spies and not letting them have access to Google's code like it does everywhere else in the world for fear of theft. I wonder how they're going to manage that paranoia since China-centric apps are big explosive business in China since Google wants back in.

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The Chinese mainland’s Peking University and Tsinghua University are among the top 30 institutions in the world, according to Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings list, released on Tuesday.

Peking University, located in northeast Beijing’s Haidian District, climbed two spots to claim the 27th position on the list, putting it on par with the UK’s University of Edinburgh and New York University in the US.

Just three kilometers away, Tsinghua University climbed five places to reach the 30th position. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s alma mater bypassed the University of Melbourne, Georgia Institute of Technology, LMU Munich and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in the process.

Global reputations for teaching and research have improved for both institutions this year, the annual report added.

With the addition of Fudan University (116), University of Science and Technology of China (132), Nanjing University (=169), Zhejiang University (=177), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (=188), the Chinese mainland is the sixth most-represented in the top 200.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is also strongly represented on the list, with five universities in the top 200.

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Chinese scientists artificially breed rare snake species
By Sun Wenyu (People's Daily Online) 17:05, September 06, 2017

A research team in China has artificially bred a rare snake species, elaphe perlacea, for the first time, thepaper.cn reported.

Elaphe perlacea, hailed as the most beautiful snake in the world, is a mild and non venomous snake species.

It was first spotted by the U.S. scholar Leonhard Stejneger in southwestern China’s Sichuan province 98 years ago. It remained undiscovered for the next couple of decades. Some people even doubted its existence.

The snake was later spotted in 1980, 1987, and 1988. Ding Li, the leader of the Chinese research team, who is also a researcher with the Chengdu Institute of Biology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed the snake as a unique species in 2017.

According to Ding, less than 30 elaphe perlacea have been found in the recent century. Even pictures of the mysterious snake are very precious, let alone artificial breeding, Ding added.

Ding captured the snake three years ago, and he finally made a breakthrough in the artificial breeding of the species after three years of hard work. The first batch of snake eggs was hatched recently.

Ding believes the snakes could make good pets for reptile lovers, but people should not capture them from the wild, since they might face extinction once their habitats are destroyed.

Scientists usually omit the location of such discoveries in media reports and scientific literature, because poachers can trace the rare animals through such documents. The practice has become an unwritten norm in academia.

Currently, elaphe perlacea is not a protected species in China. But fortunately, it has been locally protected by Sichuan province. Ding hopes the country will make further efforts in this regard and add this species of snake to the list of animals protected by the nationwide Wildlife Protection Law this year.

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China's top political advisors met Thursday to discuss ways to reform the appraisal system of science and technology.

The bi-weekly consultation session was chaired by Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Political advisors said sci-tech appraisal was an important route to sustainable and healthy sci-tech development, optimizing sci-tech resource allocation and improve sci-tech management.

The current system, however, has many problems, including excessive emphasis on publications and honorary titles, as well as too much government intervention.

The advisors put forward proposals including measures to contain such practices and focus more on the quality, contributions and the effects of sci-tech achievements.

Appropriate appraisal criteria for research should be set up, giving universities, research institutes and companies more say, encouraging them to improve their innovation capability.

The seminars are used by top political advisors to study major issues with experts and officials.

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China steps up building science and tech power
(Xinhua) 09:25, September 10, 2017

BEIJING, Sept. 9 -- China has made a series of achievements in science and technology over the past month as the country quickens its pace in becoming a leading science and tech power by the middle of the century.

China has been a leader in quantum technologies, which eliminate the possibility of wiretapping and secure communication. In early September, it was announced the Beijing-Shanghai quantum communication network has met requirements to open for service.

The 2,000-km network, the world's first, will be used for secure data transmission in the military, finance and government affairs fields.

The country has also completed a test of its high-throughput satellite Shijian-13, designating it as Zhongxing-16. With a transfer capacity of 20 Gbps, the satellite is capable of providing better Internet access on planes and high-speed trains, as well as in less-developed regions.

In a step toward launching a Mars probe around 2020, planners have mapped out a 400-million-yuan (61 million U.S. dollars) development plan to turn a red rock basin in Qaidam basin in northwest China's Qinghai Province into a Mars scientific research base and eco-tourism site.

The base is expected to consist of a "Mars community" and a "Mars campsite." The campsite will have a number of experimental module-like accommodations.

Underground research has also moved swiftly. Researchers recently acquired hot dry rock (HDR), with temperatures of 236 degrees Celsius, from 3,705 meters below Gonghe basin in Qinghai Province.

HDR is usually buried 3,000 to 10,000 meters under the earth's surface. It can be used to generate clean electricity via its high temperatures. The breakthrough means China is a step closer to easing environmental problems related to the greenhouse effect and acid rain.

China has made innovation the core of its 13th five-year plan (2016-2020), with the aim of becoming an "innovation nation" by 2020, an international leader in innovation by 2030, and a world powerhouse in scientific and technological innovation by 2050.

"We will accelerate R&D and commercialization of new materials, artificial intelligence, integrated circuits, bio-pharmacy, 5G mobile communications, and other technology to develop industrial clusters in these fields," said a government work report issued this year.

Such efforts will help the country improve convenience of transportation, raise living standards, resolve energy resource shortages, and boost economic development.

Developers said on Wednesday that track has been laid for China's longest high-speed railway at high latitudes, and the railway is scheduled to open in June 2018.

Running at 200 km per hour, the 343-km railway linking Harbin, capital of the northeast province of Heilongjiang, and Jiamusi in the same province, runs through four tunnels and over 120 bridges. It will cut travel time to 1.5 hours from 7 hours.

On the environmental front, an in-orbit test of China's first orbiting carbon observatory satellite was successfully completed in September. Scientists will convert magnetic signals received from the satellite into visible spectral signals, and then calculate the concentration of carbon dioxide.

While development of science and technology promises a better future, it also saves the lives of millions of people today.

According to a study published in late August, Chinese scientists have found a compound that helps a tumor-targeting virus kill liver cancer more effectively while sparing healthy cells, offering new hope for treating the world's second most common cancer killer.

A therapy that uses viruses to selectively kill cancer cells is rapidly progressing through clinical evaluation, but the therapeutic efficacy in humans has been less than expected from pre-clinical studies, according to the study published in the U.S. journal Science Translational Medicine.

China needs science and technology more than ever and the country's scientists should occupy the world's science and technology high ground, said Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The quickest and easiest way to achieve innovation is through a global cooperation network to boost innovation.

The G20 Blueprint on Innovative Growth, adopted at the Hangzhou summit in September last year, commits governments to creating a favorable environment for creativity and development.

Scientific innovation was also a central topic at the Belt and Road forum in Beijing in May, with China proposing a Belt and Road Science, Technology and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan.

A science and technology cooperation network along the Belt and Road will be completed in 2030, Bai said.

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Hebei gets its first virtual reality military education base
Source : China Daily Editor : Zhang Tao Time : 2017-09-11

Hebei's first military education base using 3D virtual reality technology recently opened to the public in Qinghuangdao of the North China province.

Visitors can see and try out the virtual reality based devices in the education base covering an area of more than 40,000 square meters.

China’s advanced weaponry as well as the industrial equipment model will be displayed in the base, including the nuclear submarines and the unmanned spacecraft Tiangong-1.

The VR military education base will be beneficial to promoting the region’s army-civilian integration industry, said Li Sheng, vice director of administration committee of the Qinghuangdao Economic and Technological Development Zone.

“We have to emphasize education to promote the army-civilian integration industry,” said Li Qianfang, director of the center for strategic studies of military and civilian integration with the Ministry of Commerce.

“Showing weapons and equipment using the virtual reality technology can help us raise our national defense consciousness and improve our sense of national pride,” said Li Qianfang.

The VR education base will showcase the big achievements made in our country’s national defense and science and technology industry.

Visitors can receive in-depth experience of national defense equipment for nine consecutive hours in the experience pavilion.

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China building world’s biggest quantum research facility
Centre could boost military’s code-breaking ability and navigation of stealth submarines

UPDATED : Monday, 11 September, 2017, 8:46am

China is building the world’s largest quantum research facility to develop a quantum computer and other “revolutionary” forms of technology that can be used by the military for code-breaking or on stealth submarines, according to scientists and authorities involved in the project.

The National Laboratory for Quantum Information Science will be located on a 37-hectare site next to a small lake in Hefei, Anhui province. Some time this month developers will be invited to bid for a contract to construct the site, according to an article in Hefei Evening News, a daily newspaper run by the city government on Thursday.
Pan Jianwei, China’s lead quantum scientist who was playing a key role in the project, told local officials at a briefing in May that technology developed in the facility would be of immediate use to the armed forces, according to Anhui Business Dailynewspaper.

Quantum metrology, which measures small variations in physical parameters such as gravity with unprecedented accuracy, could significantly improve submarines’ stealth operations.

A submarine with a quantum navigation system could operate underwater for more than three months without the need to surface for positioning satellite signals.

After operating for 100 days underwater the captain would still be able to pinpoint the vessel’s position in the Pacific Ocean with a margin of error of just a few hundred metres according to Pan, who could not be immediately reached for comment.

Another key mission of the laboratory is to build the nation’s first quantum computer that could break an encrypted message in seconds.

“Our plan is that by 2020, or maybe as soon as next year, to achieve ‘quantum supremacy’ with calculation power one million times to all existing computers around the world combined,” Pan was quoted as saying by Anhui Business Daily, which is run by the provincial government.

It was unclear whether the computer could be used for code-breaking.

Construction work is expected to finish in 2 ½ years with a budget of 76 billion yuan (HK$91.6 billion).

Ground-clearing work started with approval from the central government in February, according to the website of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the owner of the new facility.

Guo Guoping, a quantum information researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hefei, said
a large facility with centralised resources could accelerate this process by pulling together the talents of scientists from all over the nation with knowledge and experience of multiple scientific disciplines to overcome a wide range of technical and engineering hurdles, he said.

Guo stressed that in the national laboratory, researchers’ performance should not be evaluated by the scientific papers they published but by their contribution to specific project targets, such as building a general-purpose quantum computer.

“This may sound a bit old-fashioned, even Soviet-style, but it can give China a chance to win the race,” he added.

China moved a step ahead with the launch of a quantum satellite last year and conducted a series of cutting edge experiments such as quantum entanglement and teleportation in space.

Last month the world’s longest and most sophisticated quantum key distribution network for ultra-secure communication between Beijing and Shanghai was successfully tested and deemed ready for official deployment in the military, government and financial sectors.

Guo said the field had advanced rapidly, but the delivery of a code-breaking machine by 2020 was “highly unlikely”.

Over the next few years, researchers from around the globe may be able to develop primitive quantum computers to deal with some specific tasks.

They could, for example, simulate the movement of particles at a subatomic level to solve some physical problems that might help develop new materials or drugs.

But these are not general-purpose computers capable of code-breaking, Guo added.

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China's first commercial solar thermal power station has begun a test run and is scheduled to send power to the grid by the end of this year, said the operator on Monday.

The Delingha solar thermal power station operated by the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) in the northwestern province of Qinghai made its first test run on Aug. 31 with all equipment running normally, the company said.

The project approved by the National Energy Administration in 2016 has an installed capacity of 50 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power produced by 60,000 tons of coal a year.

Sources with CGN said the plant can reflect sunlight to a central receiver that heats water, which produces steam to power a turbine for generating electricity. It is the first time that the technology has been put into commercial use in China.

Built on the sparsely populated plateau, the demonstration plant is expected to boost China's efforts to meet the 2030 target of producing 20 percent of its overall energy from renewable sources.

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Delingha solar thermal power station /Photo via BrightSource Energy

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