New era in China-Russia ties
Strengthening of technology cooperation crucial
China and Russia are accelerating joint research and development of technologies in the new-energy sector as part of a wider collaboration framework in the China-Russia Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation.
Experts said that the cooperation in new energy is just one part of a bigger project for providing the world with more China-Russia solutions and industrializing new technology against the backdrop of the US’ unilateral moves to decouple from China.
“Strengthening of scientific and technological cooperation is a crucial part of taking the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination to a new stage,” the press officer of the Russian Embassy in China Egorov Georgy told the Global Times on Tuesday.
News reports have suggested that Chinese and Russian researchers are developing new materials to make cheap hydrogen batteries, which unlike conventional batteries, are more efficient and environmentally friendly, discharging only water or water vapor into the environment during use, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Tuesday.
The Chinese and Russian researchers involved in the development are from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Samara National Research University.
The Chinese researchers are responsible for theoretical calculations, experiments and production of anion exchange membranes for fuel cells. The Russian researchers are focusing on developing high-performance non-platinum catalysts and testing their performance, the report said.
Battery research is just one small part of the bigger picture of ChinaRussian cooperation in science and technology, and both sides were already making achievements in the collaboration ahead of the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation, which started in late August.
“Russia-China scientific and technological cooperation focuses on such spheres as digital technologies, smarter transporting systems, big data processing, artificial intelligence, energy efficiency, green agriculture, biomedicine and biomedical engineering,” said Georgy.
Since 2014, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has supported 57 common projects with the participation of Chinese research institutes and universities, and work on 38 such projects will continue in 2019-2020, according to the embassy’s press officer.
“Since 2008, the Russian Fundamental Research Fund and Chinese National Fund of Natural Sciences have realized more than 290 common projects, which proved the high efficiency” of the joint effort, said Georgy.
He said that one of the greatest successes is the cooperation within the NICA super project.
In August this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and Russian Joint Institute for Nuclear Research signed an agreement to build and operate the Complex of Superconducting Rings for Heavy Ion Colliding Beams, which is known as NICA.