China's Major S&T Projects Open Up
Wang Shaoqi, Director, Dept. of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology disclosed on August 3, 2000 that China will encourage the involvement of qualified overseas research institutions and scientists in some civil sectors of China's major national S&T programs like high tech research and development projects and basic research projects. He added that a group of major national S&T projects and S&T research and development areas will be opened up to the outside world for the first time in the country.
Last year China kicked off its full-fledged collaborative studies with EU countries in the field of high technologies and opened their respective high tech research and development projects to the other side on a reciprocal basis. In the meanwhile, China is promoting its all-round S&T cooperation at a high lwvel with major S&T powers in the world.
Wang Shaoqi said that the Chinese Government will firmly support and promote the construction of China's global and regional network for scientific research and high tech industrialization. In the meanwhile, it will encourage Chinese scientists to be involved in the projects under EU's fifth framework research plan. The Ministry will strive to create stimulus for the participation of Chinese research institutions, universities and enterprises in international S&T
cooperative projects.
He also expressed that China will do its utmost to be part of major international scientific research projects such as Alfa International Space Station Program, Large Hadron Collider and International Experiment on Thermal Nuclear Reaction
so as to make large scientific research activities new spotlights in China's in ternational S&T cooperation in the 21st century.
By-laws on Foreign Investment in China's Telecom
The Chinese Government has drafted the by-laws for foreign investment in China's telecom industry. an important step for China's accession into WTO, The by-laws will encourage foreign investors' involvement in valueadded services including Internet related businesses while setting up a difficu
lt threshold for their dive into China's mobile and fixed telecommunications. It is disclosed that China's private businesses will be allowed to establish joint ventures providing value added telecommunication services.
On foreign investors' involvement in China's Internet sector, paging service and other value added services, the by-laws require the foreign side of the jointventures be of a qualification producing USD 500,000 for its annual business volume with an assets worth no less than USD 1 million; the Chinese side of the joint ventures shall be of at least one-year business background with an annual business volume amounting to Rmb 2 million (about USD 241,600). The by-laws impose very strict regulations on the establishment of joint ventures that intend to run mobile and fixed telephone businesses. It stipulates that the Chines side of the joint venture shall be astate owned registered entity of 2-year relevant commercial experience with anannual business volume of Rmb 3 billion. In this context, only big fishes such as China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom are measured up to the standards though they are unfortunately unwilling to share their business development with foreign investors.
China's Largest Nuclear Steam Turbine
Harbin Power Generator Co. Ltd., China′s first large generator manufacturer after the foundation of the PRC, has successfully manufactured a 650,000 KW nuclear steam turbine, the largest of its kind in the country for Qinshan Nuclear Power Co.. It only took Harbin Power Generators 15 months to complete the manufacturing of this 650,000 KW steam turbine. The 66 tests
the steam turbine went through have shown that its stator winding and bearing temperatures are lower than those defined in the contract with the rest parameters all meeting the technological requirements. The maximum output of the unit has reached 700,000 KW. A series of testings on ventilation distribution, hot water flow, rotor temperature distribution, shocking of stator winding, base and iron core and shocking proof of stator coil have recorded the best in the country. On April 19, 2000, Qinshan Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., East China Institute of Power Industry Designing and others made approval check on No. 1 unit and agreed that the manufacturing quality of the unit is in line with the desired standards and its experimental indicators proved better than those of similar machines in the country. The successful development of the unit indicates that China has turned a new page in its power generator manufacturing history by smooth crossing the threshold from conventional generators to the nuclear ones.
China's Genetic Chip Manufacturing Industrialized
Union Genetic Tech (Group) Co. Ltd. announced not long ago in Guangzhou that it has boosted its genetic chip manufacturing to a scale of 2 million pieces a year. This marks that China's genetic chip manufacturing technique has reached the internationally advanced level.
Profs. Mao Yumin and Xie Yi of Life Science Institute, Fudan University had started their studies of genetic chips a few year ago and established Union Genetic Tech. Started from 1998, Union Genetic Tech established an expert group led by a post doctorate returning from abroad working on genetic chips of independent intellectual property rights. Up to last September, they had applied for 7 patent rights with the techniques approved by the authorized experts.
Early this year, Prof. Ma Wenli of No. 1 Military Medical School announced a breakthrough in genetic studies by successfully working out China's application genetic chips. After that the genetic study team of No. 1 Military Medical School joined Union Genetic Tech and successfully realized the scale production in Guangzhou. Up to date, Union Genetic Tech has developed 10 products covering three major areas with some of them available in the market. The expression spectrum chips they manufactured have become a lead in the most advanced of today′s would, which means 175,000 clones are created on a group of five chips with its probe density reaching 6000 points per square centimeter. These clones represent 40,000 and more human genes.
It is reported that before the birth of genetic expression chips, it would take at lease 40,000 experiments to study 40,000 genes and their expressions in humantissues. Now only one experiment will do with more accurate results. At the international market, the said chips could be sold for USD 15 or more while the price in the Chinese market is only one eighth of the former.
China's First Digital On-line Replay TV
The China-US Joint Lab of Sichuan Changhong Electronics Co. Ltd. has recently worked out the prototype of China's first Internet based digital television with recording function. The said product has introduced a brand new concept on personal television with real time recording function for programs in air and other beautiful tricks such as replay, fast forward, ad skipping and EPG for matching consumers' personal demand. Applied with the latest MPEG 2 digital coding technology, the computer based Changhong digital replay TV system is able to automatically save the TV programs in the air through digital compression on the hard disk and replay them afterwards. Its 90-hour saving volume and DVD image quality have made it a desirable substitute for the conventional magnetic video tape recorder with better quality and functions as a family based TV station. When you are caught up in a dilemma intending to view two programs shown in different TV channels or missing the program you like, what you need to do is simply press recording button and the new system will automatically write down the programs for your easy watching later on.
When the second recording is made, the previous one will be erased automatically. Among its series digital online replaying products, there is an online multi media center capable of accessing to the Internet, receiving and sending emails, receiving full digital satellite and cable TV signals and playing DVDs with possible expansion for TV-PC. Equipped with CMOS camera and sports testing techniques, the system can serve as security black box for public security, traffic control, banks, warehouses and residential areas. It is designed to be able to save three-month long monitoring records. It is reported that Changhong Digital Online Replay TV will make its debut on the market this fall.
Progress in China's Innovated
Pest Resistant Cotton Breeding
China's pest resistance cotton breeding techniques have witnessed new progresses. The socalled Zhongmiansuo 38, a genetically modified cotton species for pests resistance developed by the Cotton Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences with China's own independent intellectual property rights has demonstrated its fine growing properties.
It is reported that Zhongmiansuo 38 is a new type of genetically modified hybrid species of pests resistance. Its pest resistance genes are developed by the Institute of Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. With an infertile female parent, the cultivation process is able to save up 50% of workload and hence reduce the cost. Featured with many merits such as pest and diseases resistance, high yield, fine quality and simplified breeding, the new species had passed the approval check of the National Species Verification and Approval Committee on May 1999.
Practices have shown that Zhongmiansuo 38 is able to work out an effective check on the occurrence of bollworms and pink bollworms and thus may save the application of pesticides by 60% to 80%, which in turn protects the natural enemy of bollworms and make ladybug reproduced on a massive scale and suppress the hidden aphids. As shown by the testing, the new species offers better qualities such ashigh yield, diseases resistance and long fibers than other species also grown on
the experimental basis.
Experts believe that the extensive growing of Zhongmiansuo 38 will increase the cotton yield, reduce the input and increase farmers' revenues while curbing environmental pollution and maintaining the biological balance.
10kg Satellite to be Launched
Tsinghua University disclosed on August 5, 2000 that a tiny nanometer satellite that weighs only ten kilograms is in the process of development and will be sent into the space at the end of next year, cruising together with Tsinghua Space I that is now enjoying smooth operation in the space. At 18:37, June 28, 2000, Tsinghua Space I was launched into the space orbit to monitor the cropgrowth, desertification, marine red tides, forest fires and floods. The pictures Tsinghua I captured has made rich remote sensing data available to governmental agencies such as the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, Ministry of Water Resources, State Forestry Administration, Ministry of Agriculture and National Environmental Protection Agency. Tsinghua Space I that remains at its tuning stage has sentback several dozens of land surface pictures to the Tsinghua Space Center. Tsinghua Space I has a designed life of 5 years, though it may work as long as 10years if no accident fails it. Of a 40 m resolution, the mini satellite may picture any places on the earth. It takes 4 days to get a picture on a designated spot. The development of Nanometer Satellite is a major step for the space technology development. Being a combination of microelectronic and nanometer technologies, the development of nanometer satellite has drawn the attention of spacecommunity. It is briefed by experts that compared to Tsinghua Space I, the nanometer satellite has the general functions close to that of its predecessor but with a smaller weight of under 10 kilograms. It will also be placed for the telecommunication experiments between satellites. Next year the tiny toddler will be launched from the domestic launching pad.
New Energy Power Station Approved
The 30 KW tidal wave power station and wind-wave power demonstration station jointly developed by the Institute of Marine Sciences subordinated to Shandong Provincial Marine Bureau and Jimo Municipal S&T Committee have passed the approval check on July 11, 2000 organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology and Chinese Academy of Sciences after five-year efforts and 6-month consecutive full load operation.
Experts believe that the power generation, energy conversion mode and power transmission system are designed scientifically and rationally up to safe and reliable standards with tidal wave energy conversion meeting the desiged requirement and relatively stable power supply quality; the overall protection of!electronic components, swing board and mechanic transmission system makes the working life of the whole system exceed the designed one and ensures the long term, consistent, reliable and stable running of the whole system.
Safe Router in 863 Program
Chengdu based Maipu Information Technology (Group ) Co. Ltd. has successfully found solutions to technical difficulties of routers,
one of the key techniques on Internet and developed router products of China's own independent intellectual property rights. Designed in an optimized system with extremely high cost/performance ratio and user friendly selection of coding modules, the new product offers a price only about one third of that of the similar products made overseas. The development is of great importance to the security of China's information
network. So far the products have been successfully applied in the sectors of banking, public security and telecommunications in the country.
It is reported that Maipu Router has been listed in major technical innovations for 2000 by the State Economic and Trade Commission and its “Safe Router” in the National 863 Program by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Major Breakthroughs in China's Digital Library
At the news briefings on new technologies and products held on August 16, 2000 by Beijing Digital Ark Information Technology Co. Ltd., the products and solutions on the whole process from processing to storage, retrieval and then publication of information resources are made available to the public by the sponsor. The development has demonstrated that the Chinese enterprise has worked out effective solutions to the bottleneck problems restricting the development of China's digital library and the digital process of e-commerce information.
The digital library technology introduced by Digital Ark has not only effectively solved the digital process of paper based Chinese information ( now it is able to automatically enter 160 pages in double sides per minute through scanning) but is also indented with internationally accepted PDF format and advanced graphic compressing techniques, which makes smaller room for the information of similar volume at a faster transmission speed.
Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:Mr. Dong Jianlong, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China Tel: (8610)68512650 Fax: (8610) 68512594, or Mr. Wang Jianping, Editor,NEWSLETTER, 15 Fuxing Road Beijing 100038, PR China, Tel:(8610) 68515544 Ext. 2580
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