by Xinhua writers Yao Yuan and Cheng Yunjie
HEFEI, July 2 (Xinhua) — Residents of Hefei say the city has two suns — one suspends in the sky and the other lies in an industrial park in the city’s suburb.
Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, is home to the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). It has been dubbed China’s “artificial sun” due to its unique fusion process, which simulates that of the sun. This facility lies at the heart of the country’s quest for commercial fusion power, an almost inexhaustible source of clean energy.
Earlier this year, the EAST set a new world record by maintaining a steady-state high-confinement plasma operation for 1,066 seconds. Motivated by its success, engineers are now busy building a new facility nearby — the Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak (BEST) — which is expected to showcase fusion electricity generation for the first time.
Technological breakthroughs are impressive, but equally noteworthy is the emergence of a booming industry surrounding these experimental facilities. While it may take another decade or two for commercial fusion to become a reality, the growth of the sector so far has been remarkable.
Engineers have designed a security check equipment utilizing a spin-off technology of fusion, which has been deployed at the city’s metro system. Another byproduct is a proton therapy system for treating multiple cancers, which will soon begin clinical operations.
“We aim to ‘lay eggs along the way,’ fostering new high-tech companies along our journey toward eventually realizing fusion power,” said Yang Qingxi, deputy director of the BEST department of Fusion Energy Tech., the company that is building the BEST.
The company exemplifies the new strategy adopted by Chinese cities like Hefei to foster new industries from cutting-edge technologies. This approach leverages spin-off technologies from frontier research and focuses on quickly building a supply chain around these technologies.
Nationwide, the Chinese government has called for establishing a growth mechanism for investment in future industries, including quantum technology, bio-manufacturing, embodied intelligence and 6G. This has spurred a swift market response to transform lab-based research into operational technologies with market impact.
In Hefei, which hosts the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and several national labs, future industries including fusion energy, quantum information and commercial space industry are picking up steam.
In the fusion sector, an industrial chain was built from scratch in just a few years. The city now hosts nearly 60 fusion-related companies, many of them being suppliers of materials and equipment needed in the construction of experimental facilities.
“Our superconductors used to rely on imports, which means longer delivery time and insufficient supply. Now domestic companies have managed to greatly raise the output,” said Yan Jianwen, chairman of Fusion Energy Tech. “For them, it will become a gigantic industry if fusion energy is realized.”
The city’s quantum ascendance, derived from groundbreaking researches by USTC, has also fostered a thriving application ecosystem. Its “Quantum Avenue” has attracted dozens of tech firms to commercialize quantum technologies, including quantum computing, measurement and communication.
China Telecom Quantum Group, located near the avenue, displays a wide range of scenarios for its quantum products, from earthquake detection using quantum measurement to eavesdropping-proof phone calls powered by quantum communication.
“You can simply apply for a SIM card with quantum services to protect your phone from eavesdropping,” said Lyu Pin, chairman of the group, adding that such encrypted message and call services have nearly 6 million users, including many entrepreneurs fearing commercial espionage.
Quantum communication offers nearly unhackable data transmission, as any attempt to intercept or wiretap the quantum information will cause them to collapse and be detected.
“As public awareness of privacy protection rises, the user base of quantum communication is projected to reach tens of millions in the near future,” he said.
Lyu attributes the successful application of quantum technology to close collaboration between the company and researchers, as well as a supportive city government, which moves fast to green-light the application of new technologies.
“It usually takes decades and a lot of luck for basic science like quantum technology to enter the market, so it is very important to generate rewards through timely marketization, and for the government to facilitate this process,” said Zhang Jianxiao, who heads the group’s sci-tech innovation and strategic development department.
The city government of Hefei has set up an office dedicated to research-to-industry transformation and is soliciting companies that can form a supply chain for budding industries, said Li Chen, an official with Hefei’s development and reform commission.
“For companies and research institutes, pursuing commercialization opportunities as they develop helps generate profits and resources to better advance technologies,” he said. “For the government, this means finding new future industries and new growth points.” ■
