(Economic Observation) The second quantum revolution has struck, and China is already in the first echelon

  China News Service, Beijing, May 14 (Reporter Liu Yuying) Standing at the starting point of the rise of the second quantum revolution, China has entered the first echelon.

This will be the first technological revolution that China has the foundation and ability to fully intervene and participate in. China will also play an important role in reconstructing the global innovation landscape.

  The "Global Quantum Information Development Report 2021" released by Zhongcheng Think Tank on the 14th shows that the number of papers published in the field of quantum communication in China has long been in the forefront of the world; the number of papers published in the field of quantum computing and quantum measurement in 2020 is second only to The United States ranks second.

  Xue Qikun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, previously stated to the media that China is generally in the first echelon in the field of quantum technology, but the United States has the most comprehensive coverage, the most advanced key technologies, and the strongest overall strength.

  Quantum technology is called "future technology", but it is closely related to everyone's life.

  Wang Bin, a senior researcher at Zhongcheng Think Tank, introduced to a reporter from China News Agency that the theoretical basis of quantum information is still a physical theory based on quantum mechanics. Its main components include qubits, quantum entanglement, and quantum superposition and other physical phenomena and concepts.

Quantum mechanics is a theoretical system for studying the microscopic world. Through the blessing of traditional science and technology and applications, quantum technology has spawned many new directions, driving the development of traditional industries to burst into new vitality.

  In the 1950s, people invented transistors, computers, chips, etc. based on the principles of quantum mechanics, triggering the first quantum revolution.

  Wang Bin said that the rapid development of quantum information technology is one of the important signs of the rise of the second quantum revolution, which mainly includes three major areas: quantum communication, quantum computing, and quantum measurement.

  At present, quantum technology has become the focus of the layout of the world's major scientific and technological powers, including the United States, European Union countries, Japan, South Korea, and India.

  According to the report, the United States has completed a strategic layout in the entire field of quantum information technology. In terms of theoretical research, it focuses on promoting the discipline construction of quantum information science. At the level of application technology, it takes the research and development of high-performance computing systems as the traction, and focuses on the development of quantum computing hardware equipment. And have achieved a number of phased results.

  The EU's quantum information technology mainly focuses on the four subdivisions of quantum communications, quantum simulators, quantum sensors and quantum computers.

  In the 1990s, China began to enter the field of quantum information technology.

In 2005, China officially entered the stage of rapid development of quantum communication technology. A series of projects including the "Zuchongzhi" quantum computer, the "Mozi" quantum satellite, and the world's first quantum communication backbone network "Beijing-Shanghai Mainline" marked China's rapid development. Major breakthroughs have been made in the field of quantum information technology.

  However, the industrialization of quantum information is still in the exploratory stage.

Wang Bin said that compared with the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and other countries, China started late in the field of quantum information technology. Although it has achieved some cutting-edge results in some fields, there is still a long way to go from the laboratory to the large-scale commercial implementation. .

  "Because most of the quantum information applications, especially the commercial conditions of quantum computing, are extremely harsh, and quantum chips need to work under extremely harsh conditions, this has caused a huge obstacle to the popularization of quantum computing," Wang Bin said.

  In addition, related basic research and technological breakthroughs still need to be broken, and the existing quantum information technology level cannot provide effective support for the large-scale realization of consumer quantum key distribution, quantum cloud computing, quantum sensor network and other future quantum information application scenarios.

  How should China seize the opportunity of the quantum revolution in the future?

The report recommends that one is to increase support for basic research on quantum information; the second is to accelerate the process of industrialization of quantum information; the third is to strengthen the overall layout of quantum information development; and the fourth is to improve the layout of professional talent echelon construction.

  Regarding the industrialization of quantum information, Wang Bin suggested that the corresponding industry standards, qualifications and certification systems should be improved to promote the large-scale promotion of quantum communications; breakthroughs in the manufacturing of upstream core components and supporting equipment for quantum information; targeting national defense, finance, electric power, medical, Big data, blockchain and other fields are laid out in advance to enrich application scenarios.

  Will quantum communication and quantum computing replace the existing communication and computing industries?

Wang Bin said that quantum communication and quantum computing will have a greater impact on traditional communications and computing, but they will not completely replace the traditional communications and computing industries. Their main significance is to solve some problems that cannot be solved by existing computing capabilities and systems. An effective supplement to the industry.

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