HI-TECH EDGE

Examining China’s scientific and technological expertise

The announcer on the giant screen greeted visitors to the Wuzhen International Internet Exhibition Center cheerfully. “Good morning, everyone! I will be your news anchor for today.” But this was no ordinary announcer; the voice and image were entirely generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

The virtual announcer was one of the highlights of the Light of the Internet Expo on the sidelines of the Fifth World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen, east China’s Zhejiang Province, on November 6-10. Every year during the exhibition, 5G technology, AI, cloud computing, big data, smart medical care and other scientific buzzwords materialize in a series of innovative products. Particularly, exhibits from Chinese tech companies have become increasingly eyecatching. Many of these tech-rich creations are bringing benefits to people worldwide aspiring for a better life.

Over the past four decades, science and technology have become the main productive forces in China, while innovation has become a major driver of development. This scientific and technological capacity has progressed hand in hand with economic development, which has greatly contributed to the improvement of China’s composite strength.

Impressive progress

When China launched reform and opening up in 1978, most Chinese railways still used steam locomotives with an average speed of 40 km per hour. After years of hard work, the Beijing- Tianjin Intercity Railway, the first high-speed railway (HSR) in China with a speed of up to 350 km per hour, opened in 2008. In just 10 years, China’s HSR network is operating the fastest trains in the world.

The Chinese rail network went from 52,000 km in 1978 to 127,000 km at the end of 2017, an increase of 144 percent. This includes 25,000 km of high-speed lines, accounting for 66.3 percent of the global total.

“Thanks to HSR, the trip from Beijing to my hometown has been reduced by six hours,” said Li Wenshui, a student in Beijing from east China’s Shandong Province. In addition, the export of HSR technology to Southeast and Central Asian countries has become an important part of Chinese international cooperation, in what is called “railway diplomacy.”

These scientific and technological achievements stem from a common element: innovation. According to Wang Zhigang, Minister of Science and Technology, a high degree of integration between innovation and supply-side structural reform has facilitated scientific and technological breakthroughs and promoted industrial upgrading. The contribution of scientific and technological progress to China’s economic growth is now at 57.5 percent, he added.

This would not have been possible without human resources, which are the most precious factor for technological innovation, according to experts. Since reform and open-