China is Socialistisch: Het westerse ultrakapitalistische fabeltje

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China May Surpass 2025 New-Energy Storage Goal as Regions Plan Capacity Boost



What’s new: More than two dozen of China’s provinces and cities have set new-energy storage installation targets for 2025, with these regions’ total planned capacity more than doubling the country’s target for the year, according to an industry expert.

As of July, 26 provinces and cities had laid out plans to bring the total installed capacity of their storage facilities for renewable energy projects to 86.6 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2025, according to data released Sunday by Chen Haisheng, chairman of industry group China Energy Storage Alliance.

In May, the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued an action plan which set the national target for new energy storage installations at “over 40 GW” by the end of 2025. In 2021, national authorities set the goal for 2025 at “more than 30 GW”, which was achieved in 2023.

The background: Chen linked the rapid build-out of new-energy storage to local government support for the industry. They have been pushing the development of renewables to meet President Xi Jinping’s dual carbon goals of achieving peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

However, the pace of expansion has slowed as the energy storage industry has become mired in a price war due to overproduction of storage batteries and other components.

The cumulative installed capacity of new-energy storage surged 156.4% year-on-year to 44.44 GW in the first half of 2024, according to data released by the National Energy Administration on July 31. The pace of growth slowed from last year’s 260.8%.

Bron: https://www.caixinglobal.(...)boost-102230403.html

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Op donderdag 29 augustus 2024 18:03 schreef Hexagon het volgende:
China is gewoon een ordinaire dictatuur die opportunistisch linkse en rechtse dingen uitvoert.

Maar lijkt me op alle fronten een onprettiger land dan wij hier hebben.

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China Expands Role of State Bank-Backed Equity Investors to Aid Tech and Innovation



China has embarked on a pilot program allowing asset investment companies (AICs) to expand into venture capital investment in Beijing aiming to drive forward the technology and innovation sectors.

China currently has five AICs, each backed by one of the major state banks: the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the Bank of China (BOC), the China Construction Bank (CCB) and the Bank of Communications (BoCom).

Established in 2016, these AICs were created to engage in debt-to-equity swaps as part of the country’s deleveraging campaign aimed at reducing financial risks and promoting corporate reforms. Their primary business focuses on assisting companies with debt-to-equity conversions. This includes acquiring banks’ claims on enterprises, restructuring and disposing of debts, investing in corporate equity and raising funds from qualified investors.

The pilot program, launched by the National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA), the Beijing municipal government and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), expands the investment scope of the AICs beyond their traditional focus on debt-to-equity swaps to include direct equity investments in the city, according to a statement on the NFRA’s website.

It aims to use the strengths of large state-owned banks, such as their solid tech finance foundation and strong risk identification, to accelerate capital flow toward new productive forces. The program focuses on early-stage, small-scale and long-term technology investments to support innovation in China.

The Beijing pilot will aim to develop practices that can be replicated and scaled up, the statement added. The pilot followed a directive issued by the State Council in January promising to promote high-quality venture capital development, including expansion of direct equity investment pilots by AICs.

Caixin learned that the NFRA and the NDRC conducted multiple rounds of research on the five major AICs to help the rollout of these pilots in Beijing and other regions. In 2020, the former China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission gave approval to the five AICs to make pilot equity investments in Shanghai, to support the construction of the Lingang New Area in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and the economic restructuring and upgrading in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Since then, the AICs have set up a number of equity investment funds with partners in Shanghai, targeting investments in technology, biotech, health care, carbon reduction and advanced manufacturing. These include a 10 billion-yuan ($1.4 billion) fund backed by ICBC Financial Asset Investment Co. Ltd, JZ Capital and Zhong Ou Asset Management Co. Ltd., and a 600-million-yuan fund by ABC Financial Asset Investment Co. Ltd., JZ Capital and CPI Ronghe Asset Management Co. Ltd.

However, the five AICs have conducted only a few direct equity investment deals in Shanghai, and their scale is relatively small, industry sources said. “The challenge with tech and innovation investments is their smaller size and higher risk compared with debt-to-equity swaps,” according to an investor. “Balancing support for these investments with effective risk management requires further exploration, including discussions on the funding structure between AIC contributions and external fundraising.”

By the end of 2023, ICBC Financial Asset Investment reported total assets of 178.6 billion yuan while ABC Financial Asset Investment had 122 billion yuan. Their peers backed by CCB, BoCom and BOC posted assets of 129 billion yuan, 65 billion yuan and 87.9 billion yuan respectively.

Bron: https://www.caixinglobal.(...)ation-102231840.html

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China brokerage merger to create new top dog as market flounders



Two of China's top state-backed brokerages, Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities, have announced a plan to merge into what would become the country's largest player, while industry experts anticipate more consolidation.

The duo announced the merger late Thursday night in filings to the Hong Kong Exchange. The union, if it goes ahead, will create an institution with total assets of more than 1.620 trillion yuan ($230 billion), overtaking China's current No. 1 brokerage, CITIC Securities, which had 1.495 trillion yuan in assets as of the end of June.

Guotai and Haitong are slated to merge through a share swap. Both noted the plan awaits regulatory approval. The last major round of consolidation among China's onshore brokerages was in 2016, when state-owned China International Capital acquired China Investment Securities.

The latest move comes as China's brokerage industry slogs through two years of profit declines due to a sluggish equities market. Investor confidence remains low, weighed down by an economy that is struggling to recover from a property market slump brought on, in part, by a government crackdown on leverage.

In June, Shanghai party secretary Chen Jining visited Guotai and urged the firm to move faster toward becoming an investment bank with international competitiveness and market influence, according to a local media report at the time.

While some observers have hailed the deal as the creation of a super-brokerage that can rival Wall Street titans, others say the weak onshore market could limit its prospects. "[Is it] one plus one equals two? Is the China capital market really booming now?" one skeptical Hong Kong-based senior manager at a Singapore-headquartered brokerage said. He expects more consolidation to come among central government-controlled players, combining smaller regional financial institutions.

Some smaller brokerages have also announced plans to merge, such as Guosen Securities and Vanho Securities, both based in Shenzhen. In a note published Friday by J.P. Morgan, analyst Jemmy Huang said, "Such symbolic M&As should drive sector sentiment in the near term, since this might not be the only one in the foreseeable future."

Both Guotai and Haitong logged declines in net profit attributable to shareholders in the first half of 2024 versus last year. The drop-off was more severe for Haitong than for Guotai, both of which are backed by Shanghai government-owned entities. Haitong's net profit declined by 75.1% to 953 million yuan in the period, while Guotai's figure dropped 12.6% to 5.02 billion yuan.

Before Friday's trading was halted by the merger announcement, Haitong's Shanghai and Hong Kong shares were down 6.4% and 12.2%, year to date, respectively. Guotai's shares on the two markets had declined 1.2% and 8.2%.
Both Haitong and Guotai saw declining volume in their core trading businesses, including stocks and funds trading, in the first half of this year versus the same period in 2023, their latest earnings show.

Underwriting volumes for initial public offerings dropped 90% to 2.6 billion yuan for Haitong and more than 80% for Guotai, to 2.1 billion yuan. The companies cited industrywide woes in their half-year-reports. Total stocks and funds trading volume in Shanghai and Shenzhen declined 7.6% to 115.2 trillion yuan in the first half. Funds raised through A-share IPOs in the same period dropped 84.5% to 32.5 billion yuan.

A former senior official at Haitong's Hong Kong operation described the merger plan as a "rescue" move by Guotai, as Haitong's offshore business suffered in the past few years from investing in offshore high-yield bonds issued by Chinese property developers. Haitong International, which began operating in Hong Kong in 2008 and listed in the market a year later, delisted earlier this year following two years of net losses: 6.54 billion Hong Kong dollars ($839 million) in 2022 and HK$8.16 billion in 2023.

Guotai Junan International, on the other hand, saw its businesses including commissions, interest income and trading grow from HK$1.54 billion to HK$2.1 billion. Late last week, the former investment banking head and deputy general manager of Haitong, Jiang Chengjun was arrested overseas and brought back to China over suspected wrongdoing related to his job, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Jiang had fled China in July, the commission said. The arrest is part of a broader clampdown on the financial industry.

Earlier, Bao Fan, a top rainmaker, disappeared in February 2023 and was later revealed to have been detained for investigation by Chinese authorities. Bao resigned his positions, including as CEO and chairman of the board at China Renaissance, a year later. The investment bank reported a net loss of 73.8 million yuan in the first half of this year.

Bron: https://archive.fo/4cZtV#selection-2941.4-2941.50

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Bugs, performance issues hinder Huawei's AI chips



Export controls bar import of Nvidia chips, but homegrown alternative is struggling. China's efforts to match US computing power in artificial intelligence are being hampered by bug-ridden software, with customers of leading AI chipmaker Huawei complaining about performance issues and the difficulty of switching from Nvidia products.

The Chinese technology giant has emerged as the frontrunner in the race to develop a domestic alternative to industry leader Nvidia, after Washington further tightened export controls on high-performance silicon last October. Its Ascend series has become an increasingly popular option for Chinese AI groups to run inference, a process that applications such as OpenAI's ChatGPT use to generate responses to queries.

But multiple industry insiders, including an AI engineer at a partner company, said the chips still lagged far behind Nvidia's for the initial training of models. They blamed stability issues, slower inter-chip connectivity, and inferior software developed by Huawei called Cann.

Nvidia's software platform, Cuda, is renowned as the company's "secret sauce" for being easy for developers to use and capable of vastly accelerating data processing. Huawei is one of many companies trying to break Nvidia's stranglehold on AI chips by creating alternative software.

Huawei's own employees are among those complaining about Cann. One researcher, who declined to be named, said it made the Ascend product "difficult and unstable to use" and work on testing it was being hampered.

"When random errors occur, it is very difficult to find out where it comes from due to poor documentation. You need talented developers to read the source code to see what the issue is, which slows everything down. The coding is imperfect," they said. Another Chinese engineer briefed on Baidu's use of the Huawei processors said the chips crashed frequently, complicating AI development work.

The Huawei researcher said crashes happened because it was difficult to use the hardware. "It is easy to get bad results because people don't know much about the hardware itself," they said.

To tackle the problem, Huawei has been sending engineers to help customers on site with transferring training code previously written on Cuda into Cann, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Baidu, iFlytek, and Tencent are among the tech companies that have received teams of engineers, these people said.

Huawei declined to comment. Baidu, iFlytek, and Tencent did not respond to requests for comment.

A former Baidu employee said: "Huawei excels at customer service, so of course they have engineers on site at their big customers, helping them to use their chips."

Huawei can leverage a huge workforce to accelerate the shift. According to the company, more than 50 percent of its 207,000 employees work in research and development, including the engineers dispatched to install technology for customers.

"Huawei's advantage over Nvidia is it can work closely with its customers," said technology analyst Tilly Zhang at consultancy Gavekal. "Unlike Nvidia, it has a large team of engineers to help solve clients' problems and get them to transition to their hardware."

Huawei has also set up an online portal for developers to give feedback on how its software can be improved.

After the US tightened export controls in October, Huawei raised the price of the Ascend 910B, its chip used for training, by 20 to 30 percent, according to people familiar with the matter.

Huawei's customers have also expressed concern about supply constraints for the Ascend chip, likely due to manufacturing difficulties, with Chinese companies prevented from buying state-of-the-art chipmaking machinery from the Dutch company ASML.

Huawei has seen strong demand for its AI chips. It reported a 34 percent increase in first-half revenues on Thursday, without providing a breakdown of sales for its different businesses.

More than 50 foundational models have "been trained and iterated" on the Ascend chip, Huawei executive director Zhang Ping'an said at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in July.

iFlytek has said its large language model has been trained exclusively on Huawei chips after Huawei sent a group of engineers to its headquarters in Hefei, eastern China, last year to integrate the technology.

Bron: https://arstechnica.com/a(...)ts=1&comments-page=1

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China to achieve 'basic' self-sufficiency for chip fab tools this summer claims industry veteran



China is on track to achieve basic self-sufficiency in building chipmaking equipment by this summer, reports the South China Morning Post. The publication cites Gerald Yin Zhiyao, chief executive of Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), a China-based maker of wafer fab equipment (WFE).

Chip fabs are equipped with thousands of tools and machinery, and they are usually made in the Netherlands, the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. However, these countries recently restricted the shipments of tools necessary to make chips on advanced nodes to China. Hence, the country accelerated its efforts to build its own supply chain for chipmaking equipment. While this supply chain is not yet world-class, and the tools can only be used to make chips on basic process technologies, it is about to become a reality, according to Gerald Yin Zhiyao, who formerly worked at Intel, Lam Research, and Applied Materials.

"I had thought we need at least 10 years to find a solution, but with joint efforts from hundreds of companies over the past two years, we can reach basic self-sufficiency by this summer," he said. China's semiconductor supply chain is growing quickly, thanks to collaboration among hundreds of companies over the past two years. Gerald Yin Zhiyao expressed confidence that China could achieve self-sufficiency, albeit with ongoing challenges in quality and reliability.

Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC) produces etching systems and metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) tools. Some of these tools are reportedly good enough to make chips on 5nm-class process technologies (in collaboration with tools made by ASML, though), but it is impossible to verify this.

AMEC now sources 60% of the parts for its etching tools and 80% of the components for its MOCVD tools from within China. This shift towards domestic sourcing has been crucial in reducing reliance on foreign imports. Given that most parts AMEC uses are now from China, we could say that the company is about to achieve 'basic' self-sufficiency.

However, significant gaps remain in China's semiconductor tool sector. Locally produced equipment currently constitutes only 15% to 30% of the tools used by Chinese foundries. The most notable deficiencies are in lithography systems (as the best that China's SMEE can produce in volume are good enough for 90nm-class process technologies and thicker), ion implantation tools, and electron beam inspection systems.

https://www.tomshardware.(...)ims-industry-veteran

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China Creates New State Giant to Turn Waste Into Resources



China is to establish a state-owned enterprise focused on recycling, as the country promotes upgrades to industrial equipment and consumer good trade-ins to boost the economy.

A senior official at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planning agency, said Monday that the commission “supports the establishment of a national resources recycling group to create a functional resource recovery and utilization platform,” the first official statement on the new state enterprise.

Caixin learned that the new China Resource Recycling Group, the 98th state enterprise under the central government’s direct oversight, will be based in Tianjin. The NDRC didn’t provide a timeline for the company, but Caixin learned that it will combine recycling businesses from other centrally owned state firms, including the waste steel operations of China Baowu Steel Group Corp. Ltd., the waste plastic recycling business of Sinopec Group, and the recycled aluminum and waste copper operations of Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chinalco). The companies have sent personnel to help set up the new company.

China Baowu’s recycling business is primarily operated by its wholly owned subsidiary, Ouyeel Chain Gold Renewable Resources Co. Ltd. According to its website, Ouyeel engages in recycling and processing metal resources, dismantling cars and ships, and handling recycled steel, along with warehousing, distribution, and international trade. Established in 2020, Ouyeel was valued at more than 10 billion yuan after a 2022 funding round. Its 2022 revenue exceeded 112 billion yuan ($15.9 billion), with a market share of over 20%.

Chinalco’s waste metal recycling businesses are distributed between its Shanghai listed arm Chalco and copper mining unit China Copper Co. Ltd. Sinopec, meanwhile, said it has been actively researching and developing waste plastic recycling projects.

China has implemented several policies this year aimed at enhancing resource recycling. In February, the State Council set a target to create a comprehensive waste recycling system by 2025, with the resource recycling industry’s annual output valued at 5 trillion yuan. An action plan in May emphasized the importance of recycling waste steel and promoting the circular use of outdated products.

In July, a policy document set the goal of developing a circular economy. Key objectives include achieving an annual utilization of nearly 4.5 billion tons of major solid waste by 2030, and establishing a green, low-carbon circular economy by 2035.

In 2023, China produced 17.7 million tons of recycled non-ferrous metals, marking a year-on-year increase of 6.95%. This included 3.95 million tons of recycled copper, up 5.3%, and 9.5 million tons of recycled aluminum, up 9.83%. In addition, it recycled 19 million tons of waste plastic, a 5.6% increase from the previous year, while the utilization of waste steel held steady at approximately 260 million tons, according to the NDRC.

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Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University have incubated 10 top humanoid robot startups



In the past six months, humanoid robot startups in China have raised over 2 billion yuan total through 17 financing events. Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have become key sources of talent, with 14 founders across 10 different startup companies in the sector originating from the two schools. The article describes the 10 startup companies, their specializations, and their financial backers. More broadly, the Chinese humanoid robot industry is experiencing rapid growth fueled by favorable policies, technological progress, and investment capital.

Bron: https://scout.eto.tech?id=3793

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MERICS studies China's technology development with the support of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Berlin, September 26, 2024. The Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) has launched a new project: The China Tech Observatory (CTO) is conducting a long-term study of China’s development in selected critical technologies, including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, biotechnology and quantum technology. The observations of the MERICS researchers will be available to all interested parties on the project website as of this fall.

The China Tech Observatory was launched on September 26 on the MERICS website. The project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with around EUR 460,000, is slated to run for three years. The aim is to analyze China's rapid progress in becoming an influential science and technology nation. The People's Republic is investing considerable resources in expanding its technological expertise and becoming a pioneer in future technologies. The project focuses on six key topics: Artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, green technologies, digital connectivity, biotechnology and quantum technology.

https://merics.org/en/pre(...)nistry-education-and

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China eyes sci-tech venture capital to boost industrial upgrade, economic growth



Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday the development of venture capital is critical to sci-tech innovation, industrial upgrading and the growth of the economy. Beijing has called for measures to boost the development of venture capital and stressed the need for so-called patient capital to support the growth of science and technology companies, as China’s vision of achieving technological strength still faces challenges in its capital market activities.

Premier Li Qiang told a State Council executive meeting on Wednesday that Beijing would further facilitate fundraising, investment and management, as well as mechanisms for venture capital firms to withdraw their capital, while also supporting the listing of qualified science and technology companies in the domestic and overseas stock markets.

“The development of venture capital is critical to sci-tech innovation, industrial upgrading and the high-quality growth of the economy,” Li said, according to a State Council statement. Venture capital is a form of private equity and a type of financing for start-up companies and small businesses with long-term growth potential.

China’s cabinet also pledged to vigorously develop the equity transfer and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market, further advance the pilot programme for distribution-in-kind shares and encourage social capital to establish market-based M&A master funds or venture capital secondary market funds.

A distribution-in-kind, also referred to as a distribution-in-specie, is a payment made in the form of securities or other property rather than in cash. The pilot model for distribution-in-kind shares aims to reduce volatility in the secondary market by allowing investors to retain their shares after exiting the fund, rather than being required to sell their assets on the secondary market to receive cash.

Beijing is seen to be seeking to promote state capital funding as a more responsible long-term and patient capital, enhancing the evaluation, fault tolerance and exit mechanisms.

Patient capital refers to funds with a long-term orientation and greater risk tolerance, and it has recently gained prominence in China’s official discourse. China’s private equity funds total more than 19 trillion yuan, according to data from the Asset Management Association of China.

But while the development of venture funds aligns with Beijing’s goal of driving economic growth through technology and mitigating geopolitical risks, the sector has long struggled with challenges in raising capital and also withdrawing it.

The national securities industry regulator said earlier that the government and the market had underestimated the significance of venture capital, interpreting it merely as a niche financial investment, and overlooking its crucial role in advancing China’s vital science and technology sectors, according to China Banking and Insurance News.

“China’s lack of top-level design for the positioning of venture capital and the fragmentation of policies have resulted in a prolonged shortage of stable capital supply for the industry, including banks, insurance and financial institutions, and the issues with exit channels and methods for reducing listed stakes in venture capital remain unresolved,” the publisher, which falls under the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), said in June.

“Beijing needs to urgently develop a national strategic consensus to address these issues.” Venture capital is propping up most of China’s tech companies, with nearly 90 per cent of the companies listed on China’s Science and Technology Innovation Board and 60 per cent of the firms listed on the Growth Enterprise Market having received support from private equity funds, according to Zhou Xiaozhou, a director at the CSRC.

Venture capital funds have invested in about 100,000 projects in key science and technology innovation fields, including semiconductors and biomedicine, with about 4.3 trillion yuan (US$607 billion) in invested principal, Zhou said at a meeting in May.

https://archive.fo/YVFqK#selection-1563.0-1566.0

https://www.scmp.com/econ(...)rade-economic-growth

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3 RESEARCH LABS: REALIGNING THE SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE
State key laboratories (SKLs), of which there are 533 according to official statistics, make up the largest group of centrally supported labs. SKLs are organized around broad disciplinary topics such as biology, physics, or the information sciences. They play a role in fostering "indigenous innovation," attracting talent from abroad, and commercializing research.

SKLs are ranked immediately below so-called national labs and research centers, of which there are 20. National Engineering Research Centers (NERC), of which there are 191, have equal status. In contrast to SKLs, which traditionally focus on basic science, NERCs focus on the development of domestic commercial applications.

The state key laboratory (SKL) designation was launched in 1984 during China's reform and opening-up period and has since undergone successive waves of reform. Research organizations usually have an existing research facility and SKL status granted following a successful application. Once awarded, the facility receives steady annual funding, contingent on successful five-yearly reviews, making this an important and prestigious funding program.

Bron: https://www.merics.org/si(...)innovation-chain.pdf

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''De China Biomanufacturing Conference 2024 werd van 28 tot 29 augustus in Hefei gehouden. Het evenement, met als thema 'Biomanufacturing Creates the Future', mede georganiseerd door de Tsinghua Universiteit en de lokale overheid, richtte de Biomanufacturing Alliance op om verschillende belanghebbenden voor de ontwikkeling van de industrie te verenigen. Er werd een deskundig adviescomit� opgericht dat zich zal richten op bioproductie, en er werden tien openstaande cases uit de Chinese binnenlandse bioproductie-industrie gepresenteerd. Het ontwikkelingsplan van het Hefei Biomanufacturing Industrial Park werd ook onthuld.''

Bron: https://scout.eto.tech/?fulltext=hefei+biomanufacturing

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The National Biomanufacturing Industry Innovation Center started construction in Shenzhen, Guangdong

The construction of China's first national-level bio-manufacturing innovation center began in Shenzhen. The center is led by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and will feature six major technical platforms. (Source (CN): S&T Daily)

Bron: https://scout.eto.tech/?f(...)gs=recADsTVXtwN7CTFp

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Op maandag 19 augustus 2024 16:55 schreef Hanca het volgende:

[..]
Ik heb mijn bijbel compleet achtergelaten, ik heb niks aan een verscheurde bijbel (en had volgens mij ook toen al een digitale versie van de bijbel bij me). Het grootste probleem was denk ik dat ik altijd een Engelse bijbel meeneem (ook in NL naar de kerk) ipv een Nederlandse. Dat leek die man niet te vertrouwen.

Het terugkeren heeft een heel simpele reden: nog veel meer dan zelfs Zuid-Europeanen hangen Chinezen aan familie, daar willen ze gewoon graag bij in de buurt wonen. Maar als die Chinezen konden kiezen zouden ze graag in China, op hun geboortegrond met hun familie, wonen onder de democratische waarden van Nederland, zeer zeker.

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Op maandag 30 september 2024 13:39 schreef Mikeytt het volgende:

[..]
Beetje onzinnige insteek. Er is ontzettend veel kritiek op de overheid en mensen zijn vaak politiek uitgesproken als het over politiek gaat.

Open maar een willekeurige frontpage van Weibo of RED...

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Op maandag 30 september 2024 15:25 schreef Mikeytt het volgende:

[..]
Xi jinping is ook geblokkeerd in de zoekfunctie samen met een paar andere termen.

Bijvoorbeeld: https://m.weibo.cn/status/5039306808755661

[ x ]

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Idiots are gathering together again. We criticize the government and society in order to make them better, so that we can get more protection, services and a better living environment. The same is true for the emerging industry of live streaming. We should take standardized management seriously in order to develop healthily, so as to provide more space for the survival of ordinary people. Otherwise, will we allow some monsters to destroy this industry?

Everyone can do what they want and say what they want. Why must everyone be unified? If you want to criticize the root causes of social problems, you require everyone to criticize. If you don’t want to criticize the vulgar and obscene phenomena in live streaming, you don’t allow others to criticize. Is there a possibility that one person can’t do everything, and only when different people do different things can the whole society be better?

In addition, who can the future development of society rely on if not ordinary people? Times create heroes, and ordinary people create times.

Where does this evil trend come from when people always stand in line, divide camps, oppose and put big hats on others?

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Op zaterdag 28 september 2024 19:36 schreef Peppert het volgende:
We zullen dit maar de vierde week noemen. Ik ben toch thuis uit mijn neus aan het vreten: geen sport en werk op zaterdag. Iets eerder dan 1 oktober voor de ge�nteresseerden. Als dit soort spam niet gewenst is dan hoor ik het graag. Een of twee reacties en ik houd natuurlijk mee op. Zo niet dan een nieuwe update rond 15 oktober.

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China launches new Gaofen-12 remote sensing satellite



China added a fifth Gaofen-12 satellite to its national Earth observation system Tuesday, while providing no details regarding its capabilities. A Long March 4C rocket lifted off at 7:45 p.m. (2345 UTC) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) confirmed launch success and revealed the payload to be Gaofen-12 (05).

The satellite successfully entered its predetermined orbit, according to the SAST statement. It is likely to join the four existing Gaofen-12 satellites in roughly circular 630-kilometer-altitude orbits inclined by 98 degrees, indicating a sun-synchronous orbit.

The Gaofen-12 (05) (“High resolution-12 (05)”) satellite is nominally part of the civilian China High-resolution Earth Observation System (CHEOS). CHEOS satellites are equipped with different imaging technologies such as optical, infrared and synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

The first Gaofen satellite was launched in 2013. The CHEOS system aims to provide all-time, all-weather Earth observation coverage. Commercial Chinese Earth observation constellations, notably optical and SAR, have since emerged in China, adding to comprehensive remote sensing coverage.

Chinese state media reported the Gaofen-12 (05) satellite will be used in a variety of fields including land surveys, urban planning, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster relief.

The lack of publicly available information, however, suggests the satellite could be in part intended for military customers. It could also be a civilian counterpart to a Yaogan satellite used for military applications.

Resolution capabilities and other information has been published for lower numbered Gaofen series satellites. However, information for Gaofen satellites numbered 8 and above has not been openly released, suggesting the satellites are for national defense purposes.

Gaofen-11 satellites are believed to have an aperture of around 1.5 meters. They are able to deliver optical imagery at a resolution on the order of 10 centimeters, according to the Chinese Society for Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography.

Tuesday’s mission was China’s 49th orbital launch attempt of 2024. It followed the launch of a second group of 18 satellites for the Qianfan/Thousand megaconstellation. The project aims to put around 14,000 flat panel communications satellites into low Earth orbit.

China is preparing to send the Shenzhou-19 crewed mission to the Tiangong space station around the end of October. Three as yet unknown astronauts will join the Shenzhou-18 crew aboard Tiangong and take over residency of the space station. The Tianzhou-8 cargo resupply mission is expected to follow in November, launching on a Long March 7 rocket from Wenchang.

Bron: https://spacenews.com/chi(...)e-sensing-satellite/

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1. Funding allocation
Although numerous research projects have been completed and are being worked on in China, truly groundbreaking results are relatively rare. One reason is that funding rarely reaches smaller, lesser-known teams that are more likely to produce original work. Large, established teams often dominate project funding, making it difficult for small teams to compete.

In contrast, for example, the team at U.S. startup OpenAI had fewer than 100 people when ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, yet their results were transformative.

2. Project allocations
Original scientific research often involves trial and error, much like Archimedes’ famous eureka moment. However, the project application process in China tends to require applicants to predict successful outcomes from the start, which limits the possibility for innovation.

Furthermore, the rigid format of project applications consumes valuable time, with researchers needing months to craft proposals. A more efficient approach might be to evaluate teams based on their track record, supporting those with strong past performance.

3. Feasibility of proposals
The current project application system doesn’t encourage originality. While China’s National Natural Science Foundation includes a category for originality, submitting proposals under this label is risky. Reviewers are often skeptical of unfamiliar ideas. As a result, applicants tend to play it safe, basing proposals on existing research to ensure approval. This conservative approach stifles the development of bold, innovative ideas.

4. Short evaluation periods
China’s research evaluations are typically short-term, with assessments often conducted every one to three years. This short timeline discourages researchers from pursuing long-term, high-impact projects that might not yield immediate results. Consequently, many published papers have low citation rates, and their innovations are often limited to minor adjustments or imitations.

5. Time costs
In past discussions on how to effectively pursue graduate studies, I’ve mentioned the concept of “time quotient,” which relates to the total time dedicated to research and its efficiency. Time is the same for everyone, after all, each day has 24 hours, but one significant challenge in China’s research environment is the number of miscellaneous tasks. For scholars with exceptional abilities, there’s also the likelihood of being promoted into administrative roles, which means they need to further optimize their research time to maintain high-quality output.

6. Graduate enrollment expansion
In recent years, the ratio of graduate students to undergraduates has risen significantly, with some universities reaching a 1:2 ratio. This reflects an overall improvement in the education quality of China’s population, but it also brings challenges.

First, the number of professors has not increased proportionally. This phenomenon likely applies to mentoring graduate students as well; the more students a professor supervises, the more their mentoring quality might decline, as their time is limited. Second, concerning the quality of students, Professor Ma Zhen from Fudan University once remarked that the enrollment expansion allows some students without adequate research capabilities to enter graduate programs. Third, the increased number of graduate students leads to greater pressure in the job market. To secure employment, many students prioritize short-term research projects or even seek non-research-related work.

7. Pre-university education
It’s also worth revisiting the issue of pre-university education in China’s middle and high schools. It’s no secret that in the race to gain admission to prestigious universities, quality education has been sacrificed for exam-oriented education. To ensure students achieve high scores, many top schools follow formulaic teaching methods tailored to the needs of the college entrance exam.

As a result, there’s little time for extracurricular content, ensuring learning efficiency. However, this focus on exams indirectly leads to students lacking broader perspectives and a wider knowledge base, potentially resulting in high exam scores but low research capabilities — ultimately hampering the production of original academic work.

8. Evaluation criteria
In November 2018, the Ministry of Education issued a notice aimed at curbing the overreliance on quantitative metrics in research evaluations. Six years later, have the issues been resolved? While some positive changes have been made, we must be cautious.

Overall, while the number of researchers in China is now among the highest in the world, and the research environment has improved significantly compared to the past, challenges remain in fostering truly original work. I sincerely hope that within the next decade, China can produce more innovative and original research, with tangible results that benefit the nation.

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China's secretive reusable spaceplane lands after 267 days in orbit

China's experimental reusable spaceplane returned to Earth late Thursday, completing its third orbital mission.

State media Xinhua issued a brief report on Sept. 5 (Eastern), confirming the spacecraft's return to Earth. The report provided no images, nor information regarding the mission and its landing site.

The "success of the experiment demonstrates the growing maturity of China's reusable spacecraft technologies, which will pave the way for more convenient and affordable round-trip methods for the peaceful use of space in the future," the report read.

China launched the spacecraft from Jiuquan spaceport on a Long March 2F rocket for the third time Dec. 14. That event took place two weeks ahead of the launch of the U.S. X-37B spaceplane on a Falcon Heavy rocket into an undisclosed orbit. China's spaceplane is thought to be analogous to the X-37B. Astrophysicist and space watcher Jonathan McDowell estimates the spacecraft would have passed over the expected Lop Nur landing site in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwestern China, at around 9:10 p.m. Eastern, Sept. 5.

Observations of the spacecraft's maneuvers in orbit suggested the spacecraft was preparing for a return to Earth. In late July, amateur optical astronomy revealed images of the spacecraft in orbit. The landing marked the completion of the spaceplane's third mission. At 267 days, it was similar in duration to the second mission, which lasted 276 days. The initial flight in 2020 lasted two days.

Rendezvous and proximity operations
All missions have involved releasing a small satellite or object into orbit. The second and third missions have seen the main spacecraft appear to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) with the object it released. The third flight saw RPOs conducted in June.

While it is unclear if the spaceplane briefly retrieved and re-released the object, their close approach suggests intentional proximity operations. The second mission also involved RPOs. Such operations could be useful for retrieving, repairing and maintaining friendly satellites, or potentially nefarious counterspace operations against an adversary's spacecraft. China has maintained strict secrecy around the mission. The country's space authorities have not released images nor descriptions of the spacecraft.

The short Chinese reports on the mission state that the spacecraft is for reusable technology verification and space science experiments, and will "provide technical support for the peaceful use of space." The orbital reusable spacecraft is intended to work in conjunction with a reusable suborbital first stage. This suborbital craft, which uses vertical takeoff and horizontal landing, was first tested in 2021. A second mission flew in August 2022.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), which developed the spacecraft, announced plans for a fully reusable, two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) space transportation system before the first launch. In 2022, CASC's spaceplane project received national funding from the Natural Science Foundation of China. The system's development fits into a broader trend of China pushing to increase its access to space and developing reusable solutions for spaceflight. The amount of time between landing and the next launch of the vehicle could provide some insight into progress on reusability.

Bron: https://spacenews.com/chi(...)r-267-days-in-orbit/

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Inside the underground lab in China tasked with solving a physics mystery

A giant sphere 700 m (2,300 ft) underground with thousands of light-detecting tubes will be sealed in a 12-storey cylindrical pool of water in coming months for an experiment that will shine new light on elusive subatomic particles known as neutrinos.

After years of construction, the $300 million Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) in China's southern Guangdong province will soon start gathering data on neutrinos, a product of nuclear reactions, to help solve one of the biggest mysteries in particle physics.

Every second, trillions of extremely small neutrinos pass through matter, including the human body. In mid-flight, a neutrino, of which there are three known varieties, could transform into other types. Determining which types are the lightest and the heaviest would offer clues to subatomic processes during the early days of the universe and to explaining why matter is the way it is.

To that end, Chinese physicists and collaborating scientists from all over the world will analyse the data on neutrinos emitted by two nearby Guangdong nuclear power plants for up to six years. JUNO would also be able to observe neutrinos from the sun, gaining a real-time view of solar processes. It could also study neutrinos given off by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in the Earth to better understand mantle convection driving tectonic plates.

Due to go operational in the latter half of 2025, JUNO will outpace the far larger Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) under construction in the United States. DUNE, backed by the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) under the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) top particle physics laboratory, Fermilab, will come online around 2030.

The race to understand neutrinos and advance the study of particle physics, which has transformed medical imaging technologies and developed new energy sources, intensified when the DOE abruptly cut funding for U.S. institutes collaborating on JUNO. It instead focused on building DUNE, which has since been plagued by delays and budget overruns, with costs skyrocketing to more than $3 billion.

"China had supported Fermilab's LBNF at the time, but later the cooperation could not continue," Wang Yifang, chief scientist and project manager of JUNO, told Reuters during a recent government-backed media tour of the facility.

"Around 2018-2019, the U.S. DOE asked all national laboratories not to cooperate with China, so Fermilab was forced to stop working with us." The DOE, the largest U.S. funding agency for particle physics, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Sino-U.S. tensions have risen sharply over the past decade. A trade war erupted during the Trump administration and President Joe Biden later cracked down on the sale of advanced technology to China. In August, a bilateral science and technology cooperation pact signed in 1979 lapsed, potentially pushing more scientists to seek alternative partners, creating duplication in research and missing out on collaboration that otherwise might have led to beneficial discoveries.

In the 2010s, the countries jointly produced a nuclear reactor that could use low-enriched uranium, minimising the risk of any fuel being weaponised. China's foreign ministry said Beijing was "in communication" with Washington about the lapsed science agreement. The U.S. State Department did not comment.

Bron: https://www.reuters.com/s(...)-mystery-2024-10-16/

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Op zaterdag 28 september 2024 19:36 schreef Peppert het volgende:
We zullen dit maar de vierde week noemen. Ik ben toch thuis uit mijn neus aan het vreten: geen sport en werk op zaterdag. Iets eerder dan 1 oktober voor de ge�nteresseerden. Als dit soort spam niet gewenst is dan hoor ik het graag. Een of twee reacties en ik houd natuurlijk mee op. Zo niet dan een nieuwe update rond 15 oktober.

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quote:

De Chinese Academie voor Sociale Wetenschappen richt twee onderzoeksinstituten op voor minder bestudeerde gebieden.

On November 15, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) inaugurated two new key laboratories and a research institute in Beijing focusing on technology archaeology, cultural heritage protection, and linguistics. The establishments are part of CASS' overall 2024 plan to upgrade and consolidate talent in its laboratories, and develop neglected fields. The technology archaeology lab will utilize advanced techniques across multiple sciences, while the linguistics lab will apply cutting-edge methods to enhance language services and resources. The new institute will train professionals in underrepresented disciplines, such as in languages and cultural studies.

Bron: https://scout.eto.tech/?f(...)er-studied+subjects+

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China Loosens Grip on Contract Manufacturing of Biopharma Products



China has begun piloting a program that allows the contract manufacturing of more biopharmaceutical products, a move long-awaited by the industry that is expected to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

The pilot is the latest effort by regulators to boost the growth of the country’s pharma industry and signals their desire to further ease their grip on biologics manufacturing after a first step in 2019.

The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) on Monday launched a pilot program on “segmented production of biological products,” which allows biopharma firms with drugs that have been approved to enter the market to outsource one or more parts of their production activities to contract manufacturers such as contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs).

The pilot broadens the range of biological products that can make use of so-called segmented production. Before the pilot, this could only be done for certain biologics, although the regulations are not explicitly clear about which ones. The contract manufacturers, meanwhile, should have more than three years of experience in commercial production of biological products, the regulator said. It also stipulated that the products in the pilot should be novel biologics with urgent clinical needs, such as multi-valent vaccines against different diseases, antibody drugs and insulin.

Industry insiders believe that producers of antibody drug conjugates, a type of anti-cancer treatment, will benefit the most. Producing these treatments is costly, as the production process is particularly complex, involving steps for both chemical and biologics manufacturing. Specialized workshops are also required to maintain the activity of the small molecule toxins in the therapy. Many pharma companies don’t have such workshops, so allowing them to carry out segmented production can significantly reduce their costs, an executive at a biopharma company said.

“The core logic of segmentation is that different people do different things to optimize cost efficiency,” an investor told Caixin. The program will be carried out through 2026 in various major regions including Beijing, Shanghai, as well as Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, according to the regulator.

The stocks of several contract manufacturers listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai jumped after the NMPA announced it had approved the plan on Oct. 18. Shares of WuXi Biologics Cayman Inc., a major Hong Kong-listed CDMO, ended the week up more than 5%. While the pilot was widely welcomed, the investor expected it to bring only limited positive changes to the biopharma industry.

Large Chinese biopharmaceutical companies have all established their own factories and have sufficient or even excess production capacity, the investor said. Meanwhile, smaller companies have less need for segmented production because they have fewer products on the market, and many are already struggling to survive the prolonged capital winter in the health care industry.

The NMPA’s latest move may also harm profits of CDMOs as they may have to compete with others for outsourcing contracts, the investor said. It also means there will be more demand for authorities to ensure the quality of biological products, although it remains unclear how many companies will receive approval for segmented production.

In 2019, after more than three years of trial, the country enshrined the Marketing Authorization Holder System into law, formally allowing the segmented production of drugs. Since then, pharma firms have been able to outsource the production of certain biologics, such as vaccines, to contract manufacturers, as long as they have been approved by the NMPA. However, companies were unclear what conditions their products need to meet before getting approval.

Consequently, many biopharma companies have still had to invest heavily in manufacturing facilities. In some cases, companies unable or unwilling to cover the high cost of production on their own opted for segmented production, but for unclear reasons the NMPA has been slow in approving their drugs for the market.

Bron: https://www.caixinglobal.(...)ducts-102249439.html

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How can domestic scientific instruments “break through”? Experts say more technological innovation is necessary

At the 2024 Greater Bay Area Science Forum in Guangzhou, a sub-forum was held focusing on the development of high-end scientific instruments and medical devices in China. New technologies were showcased, including a new electron microscope and cancer early screening device. While experts praised the development progress of mid-range devices, they emphasized the need for continuous technological innovation and new R&D financing pathways to overcome reliance on imports for high-end devices. They emphasized the importance of collaboration between industry, research, and academia, proposing a scientific instrument-sharing plan to enhance resource efficiency.

Bron: https://scout.eto.tech/?f(...)ovation+is+necessary.

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China to roll out gradient cultivation system for smart factories

China will conduct a gradient (progressive) cultivation campaign for the country's smart factories, according to a circular. The circular, jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and five other government authorities, stated that gradient cultivation for the smart factories will be carried out at four levels.

Since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, departments including the MIIT have implemented an intelligent manufacturing project, successfully cultivating a number of high-level and iconic smart factories. The project has also motivated more than 10,000 manufacturers around the country to carry out the construction of digital workshops and smart factories.

Establishing the gradient cultivation system for smart factories will drive the formation of a safe, controllable and complete high-level supply system for the intelligent manufacturing sector. It will also help establish more complete intelligent manufacturing standards and an evaluation system, the ministry said.

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Exploring China's Leading AI Hubs: A Regional Analysis

In recent years, the Chinese government has demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing research and development (R&D) in big data and artificial intelligence (AI), particularly through the promotion of AI+ initiatives. By the first quarter of 2024, the Chinese mainland hosted over 4,500 AI companies, representing 15 percent of the global total. To accelerate the industry's growth and maturity, China is actively integrating AI technology across various sectors, including healthcare, education, finance, and urban management, thereby fostering innovation and enhancing efficiency in these fields.

quote:

Op zaterdag 28 september 2024 19:36 schreef Peppert het volgende:
We zullen dit maar de vierde week noemen. Ik ben toch thuis uit mijn neus aan het vreten: geen sport en werk op zaterdag. Iets eerder dan 1 oktober voor de ge�nteresseerden. Als dit soort spam niet gewenst is dan hoor ik het graag. Een of twee reacties en ik houd natuurlijk mee op. Zo niet dan een nieuwe update rond 15 oktober.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

quote:

New materials big data system

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the National Data Bureau released a plan to develop a big data center system for new materials. The big data system aims to pool industrial data and share it with research institutes and enterprises, strengthening research and development (R&D) and the application of new materials research outputs. Key goals include:

• By 2027, data aggregation and circulation will be enhanced, a “1+N” new materials big data system will be established, creating one main platform and 30+ data nodes, 30+ tools, and 20+ data-driven applications
• By 2035, the new materials big data center system will be fully operational, enabling comprehensive aggregation, processing and development of materials data, placing it among global leaders
• Develop key technologies and software across the materials R&D chain, with a focus on applications like aerospace, marine engineering and ICT, while integrating advances in frontier technologies such as superconductors and biomimetic materials

MERICS comment: The aim is to enhance the productivity, innovation, and competitiveness of China’s manufacturing sector. Leveraging big data analytics allows companies to explore new manufacturing methods, analyze materials’ properties, and optimize production processes. This approach can transform material science and redefine cutting-edge technologies, with stronger, lighter, and more sustainable composites. Responsibility for data-gathering is divided between universities, research institutes, and companies, so that computing power and software (such as AI and blockchain) can convert the data into applicable and tangible results.

International competitors and similar scientific initiatives already exist in the EU and United States. Beijing is monitoring international developments closely and has expressed openness to cooperation and exchange through joint R&D programs. For China, there are potential benefits as it hosts one third of the global manufacturing industry and hence can access a much greater quantity of data than is available in other markets, provided Chinese companies are willing to share their IPs and data.

Meanwhile, if local companies obtain preferential access to the big data center system for new materials the program could become a long-term competitiveness risk for foreign firms.

Bron: https://merics.org/en/mer(...)stry-smart-factories

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China aims to further crank up its new energy storage industry

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released an action plan to boost the development of China’s new energy storage manufacturing industry. The specific products and technologies involved are lithium batteries, sodium batteries, flow batteries, supercapacitors, lead carbon batteries, flywheel energy storage, and compressed air energy storage. Important goals for 2027 include:

Cultivate between three to five companies worth CNY 100 billion
Increase new energy storage manufacturing capacity to match downstream demand in various sectors, for instance transportation, construction, communications, and agriculture Promote international cooperation in the new energy storage industry through mechanisms such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)

MERICS comment: New energy storage – which differs from traditional energy storage by excluding pumped hydro systems – is already a booming industry. China added 20 gigawatts (GW) in battery energy storage in 2023, helping it to reach its 2025 goal of installing 30 GW in new energy storage capacity two years early. China hosted almost half of the 42 GW of new energy storage added globally in 2023.

However, there are signs that the sector has begun to suffer from overcapacity. For example, in 2023 energy storage system prices fell by half within only two months. In energy storage battery production, capacity utilization plunged from 87 percent in 2022 to less than 50 percent.

The action plan addresses this challenge by promoting international expansion for China’s new energy storage industry through the BRI. China has rebranded the BRI to focus more on digital and green technologies since the Third Belt and Road Forum in October 2023.

Beijing might have to resort to additional measures, such as encouraging joint ventures or mergers and acquisitions, in order to achieve the plan’s goal of cultivating at least three CNY 100 billion companies by 2027. China’s leading battery makers in terms of revenue in 2023 were BYD (CNY 604 billion, including all business segments), CATL (CNY 404 billion), Zhejiang Changxing Tianneng Power Supply Co. (CNY 64 billion), and Ningde New Energy Technology Co. (CNY 48 billion).

Bron: https://merics.org/en/mer(...)stry-smart-factories

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China kicks off Guowang megaconstellation with Long March 5B launch



China began the construction of its Guowang megaconstellation early Monday with a launch from Hainan island. A Long March 5B with a Yuanzheng-2 upper stage lifted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 5:00 a.m. Eastern (1000 UTC) Dec. 16, carrying the first group of satellites for China’s national Guowang (“national net”) megaconstellation. Despite no official coverage of the launch, amateur live streams provided footage from Wenchang, showing a large number of spectators on beaches close in viewing distance of the launch pad.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) confirmed the success of the launch two hours after liftoff. Aboard were the satellite Internet low-orbit 01 satellite group, according to SAST, revealing no information about the number of satellites, nor basic details such as their orbits, satellite mass and manufacturer. Xinhua likewise referred to the satellites only as a first group of low Earth orbit satellites for a satellite internet constellation. U.S. space domain awareness will likely catalog the satellites in orbit in the coming hours.

Guowang aims to provide global communications coverage from low Earth orbit and is seen as a response to Starlink and other constellations. Despite the ostensibly civilian focus of the Guowang constellation, the availability of details regarding the project is limited. Unlike previous missions, the first stage of the Long March 5B is not expected to reach orbit, avoiding an uncontrolled reentry. This is due to the rocket using the YZ-2 upper stage to insert the satellites into their intended orbits.

The launch marks the start of the construction of the Guowang constellation. The existence of the Guowang plans first became known in 2020 through filings for just under 13,000 satellites with the International Telecommunication Union. The constellation is managed by the China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., or China Satnet, established in April 2021. The company, with a new headquarters in Xiong’an New Area in Hebei Province, oversees the design, deployment, and operation of the constellation. China Satnet will need, according to ITU regulations, to launch half of the 13,000 satellites by 2032. This will require a steep rise in China’s launch rate while continuing with other programs.

One country, two megaconstellations
It is not the first Chinese megaconstellation to begin being constructed this year. The Qianfan/Thousand Sails project, a Shanghai-based megaconstellation, started later but has already sent its first 54 satellites into orbit across three launches this year.

A fourth launch could take place on a Long March 8 rocket from the new Hainan commercial space launch center as soon as Dec. 22 Eastern. Spacesail aims to construct a 14,000-satellite constellation, with the aim of having around 600 satellites in orbit by the end of 2025. SSST has garnered substantial support, securing approximately $943 million in funding in early 2024.

The Chinese government approval of two low Earth orbit communications suggests a high strategic value is placed on such systems. The megaconstellations have been as enablers for China’s digital economy, providing broadband services in remote and underserved areas, and part of a satellite internet project for China’s “new infrastructures” policy unveiled in 2020.

By offering satellite internet services internationally, Guowang and Qianfan could strengthen China’s soft power and economic influence, particularly in developing countries. Qianfan has already signed an agreement with Brazil to provide services from 2026.

A domestically controlled satellite network ensures China’s strategic independence from foreign providers like Starlink. The Chinese military also noted the value of that system from the early days of Ukraine’s response to the Russian invasion of the country in 2022. Both constellations could also provide contracts for China’s commercial satellite makers and its fleet of commercial launch service providers, which are developing a range of reusable medium-lift launchers.

Launch rate inflection point
The launch of the first satellites is a long-awaited milestone which had been expected to come earlier. The event, however—alongside Qianfan—marks an inflection point in China’s already-growing launch rate. China is leveraging the Long March 5B, originally designed to launch the country’s space station modules and a crew spacecraft for lunar missions, to launch its megaconstellations, along with an enhanced Long March 8 rocket expected to debut next year. Commercial actors will also play a role.

The country is also expanding its spaceports to facilitate a much greater launch rate with more diverse launch vehicles in order to make the satellite deployment plans feasible. The launch was China’s 64th orbital launch attempt of 2024. While this indicates China is someway short of the targeted 100 launches this year, progress on megaconstellations, spaceports and new rockets suggests that leap could take place in 2025.

The construction of Guowang and Qianfan and growing launch rate will likely have ramifications for space traffic management, space debris and astronomy, as well as having a geopolitical impact.

Bron: https://spacenews.com/chi(...)ong-march-5b-launch/

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Long March 6A launches third batch of Thousand Sails constellation satellites

Bekijk deze YouTube-video

China launched the third batch of 18 satellites for the Thousand Sails constellation late Tuesday as the firm behind the project aims for global services in 2025.

A Long March 6A rocket lifted off at 11:41 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 4 (0441 UTC, Dec. 5) from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, north China. The state-owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) announced launch success hours later, once all payloads were deployed into their predetermined polar orbits.

Aboard were 18 flat panel satellites for the Thousand Sails megaconstellation to provide low Earth orbit communications services. The project is led by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST). The project is sometimes also referred to as Qianfan and G60 Starlink. The launch followed earlier Thousand Sails/Qianfan constellation satellite launches in August and October this year.

The satellites were developed by the Shanghai Microsatellite Engineering Center and are the first generation of Thousand Sails satellites.

Spacesail aims to construct a 14,000-satellite constellation, with the aim of having around 600 satellites in orbit by the end of 2025. SSST has garnered substantial support, securing approximately $943 million in funding in early 2024.

The company recently reached an agreement with Brazil, which will see Spacesail begin providing services to the county in 2026. The move follows a dispute between Brazil and the X social media platform owned by Elon Musk. The issue saw Brazil’s Supreme Court temporarily freeze the bank accounts of Starlink in the country.

The Long March 6A, developed by SAST, is the first and so far only Chinese launcher to bundle a liquid propellant core stage with solid propellant side boosters. It is capable of launching 4,500 kilograms of payload to a 700-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit

The rocket has, despite successful launches, suffered issues with its upper stage fragmenting. The launch which carried the first 18 Qianfan satellites broke up into a cloud suspected to number more than 700 pieces of orbital debris. SAST has so far not responded to requests for comment. The 36 previously launched satellites have all been cataloged in polar orbits by U.S. Space Force space domain awareness.

There are also concerns over the apparent brightness of the Qianfan satellites and their potential impact on astronomy.

The launch was China’s 62nd orbital launch attempt of 2024. It is China’s fifth launch since November 27, when the first enhanced Zhuque-2 rocket lifted off from Jiuquan, northwest China. This was followed by two experimental satellites on the first Long March 12, the launch of likely early warning satellite TJS-13 on the 100th Long March 3B, and the launch of the first enhanced Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket from Xichang.

China’s national record for launch attempts in a calendar year is 67, set in 2023. The country had stated plans to launch around 100 times across 2024.

Bron: https://spacenews.com/lon(...)ellation-satellites/

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Biomanufacturing best practice: MIIT collects model cases

At a glance: The MIIT issued instructions to collect typical examples of smart technologies – such as AI – being implemented in biomanufacturing facilities. The model cases should cover each stage of product development, from R&D through scaling up to mass production. The document outlines eight priority areas, including:

• Discover and design high-performance protein sequences and spatial structures with the help of machine learning, big language models and other artificial intelligence. Explore the gene expression and enzyme reaction level regulation mechanism of engineered bacterial strains and cell lines, to improve yield, conversion rate, and stress resistance

• Enhance bioreactor mass production methods through smart sensors, online analysis, digital twins, etc., allowing for monitoring and adjustments in real time.

MERICS comment: The government’s efforts to compile and promote best practice cases for high-tech biomanufacturing reflect the high value placed on the biotech industry as a strategic sector. In 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released a dedicated development plan for the bioeconomy, highlighting potential applications for biotech advances in fields like agriculture, medicine and environmental protection. The smart manufacturing typical cases seek to leverage digital technologies to fast track the development and commercialization processes. Yet the actual impact of this “best practice promotion” approach is likely to be limited. Companies that can afford to pursue smart production methods would be driven to explore them anyway because of competitive pressures.

Local firms could gain from participating in the typical case program by winning political favor and enhancing their reputation as a high-tech enterprise. The provincial MIIT departments are empowered to provide additional financial and taxation support to companies that feature in typical cases.

Bron: https://merics.org/en/mer(...)stry-smart-factories

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MIIT (Ministerie van Industrie en Informatietechnologie) streeft ernaar de traditionele productie te upgraden door middel van modeltechnologie�n

In ��n oogopslag: het MIIT nodigde bedrijven uit om zich aan te melden voor haar selectie van geavanceerde en toepasbare technologie�n om vijf traditionele productie-industrie�n te upgraden: non-ferrometalen, chemicali�n, algemene machines, lichte industrie en elektronica. Door te eisen dat in aanmerking komende technologie�n een lage adoptiedrempel hebben, is de regeling bedoeld om ook kleine en middelgrote bedrijven ten goede te komen. In de mededeling worden vier technologiegebieden uiteengezet waaruit aanvragers kunnen kiezen:

• High-end technology: improve the technical content and added value of industrial products such as basic components or industrial software
• Smart technology: optimize algorithms, improve data processing capabilities, and achieve independent decision-making
• Green technology: promote energy conservation and carbon reduction and improve environmental protection and resource utilization
• Industrial base technology: enhance the industrial base, including measurement, standards, quality, management, digital information technologies

MERICS-commentaar: De mededeling weerspiegelt de voortdurende inspanningen van China om zijn gehele industri�le sector en productie-industrie�n te digitaliseren en te upgraden. Recent beleid met een vergelijkbare focus omvat onder meer een MIIT-mededeling uit 2024 over het verzamelen van typische gevallen van diepe integratie tussen de re�le economie en de digitale economie, en MIIT-richtlijnen die in 2023 zijn uitgebracht over het transformeren en upgraden van de traditionele productie. De re�le economie werd ook als prioriteit benadrukt tijdens het derde plenum van het Centraal Comit� van de CCP in 2024. Toch heeft de focus van het Chinese leiderschap op productie een langere traditie en is ook duidelijk zichtbaar in haar Made in China 2025-strategie.

Het is nog steeds onduidelijk hoe verleidelijk het is voor bedrijven om aan deze regeling deel te nemen. Het vereist dat technologie�n een lage drempel hebben voor brede adoptie en geeft het MIIT de opdracht om het gebruik van deze technologie�n actief te promoten bij andere bedrijven. Dit kan bestaan ​​uit het bouwen van platforms om vraag en aanbod met elkaar te verbinden of het organiseren van technische trainingen.

Bron: https://merics.org/en/mer(...)stry-smart-factories

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China lanceert de eerste grootschalige productielijn voor banden voor de burgerluchtvaart

China's eerste grootschalige productielijn voor banden voor de burgerluchtvaart is voltooid en in gebruik genomen in Guilin, de Zuid-Chinese autonome regio Guangxi Zhuang, zo meldde het Xinhua News Agency maandag.

Volgens fabrikant Sinochem Holdings heeft de productiefaciliteit een jaarlijkse productiecapaciteit van 100.000 luchtvaartbanden, wat in 40 procent van de jaarlijkse vraag naar burgerluchtvaartbanden in China kan voorzien.

De productielijn beslaat bijna 50.000 vierkante meter en is uitgerust met meer dan 80 hoogwaardige machines voor de productie van luchtvaartbanden, van grondstoffen tot eindproducten.

Bron: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202411/1323769.shtml

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China’s ‘dreamy’ new ship aims for Earth’s mantle—and assumes ocean-drilling leadership



Berthed in China’s port city of Guangzhou is the future of scientific ocean drilling: the $470 million Meng Xiang, a brand-new, 180-meter-long ship.

Starting next year Meng Xiang—Chinese for “Dream”—will begin drilling into seafloor rock and sediment at sites throughout the world’s oceans to investigate plate tectonics, ancient marine climates, and deep-buried microbial life. It will also embark on a daring mission to pierce Earth’s crust and reach the mantle below. At a workshop last month in Guangzhou, researchers discussed the research agenda and toured the ship, which has nine dedicated science laboratories and a drilling rig that promises to delve deeper than any previous research ship. “I’m green with jealousy,” says Henry Dick, a geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “This ship has the capacity to answer fundamental climate, oceanographic, microbiological, and earth science questions … for the next 50 years,” says paleoceanographer Peter Bijl of Utrecht University.

China’s new ship—and an accompanying research program expected to be open to foreign scientists—marks a handoff in ocean drilling from the United States. Japan has a formidable research ship, the Chikyu, but for decades the U.S. led the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) with its drilling ship the JOIDES Resolution, which retired in September. “I’m very happy that China has stepped up in providing a ship,” says James Austin, a seismic stratigrapher at the University of Texas at Austin. But, “It’s a sad day for the United States.”

Meng Xiang’s most notable feature is its capability to drill to a depth of 11,000 meters below the sea surface, compared with the JOIDES Resolution’s 8385 meters and the 10,000 meters of Chikyu. This means Meng Xiang could make history by boring into the mantle, past a boundary known as the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or the Moho. Scientists have yearned to pierce the Moho since 1961 when the first scientific oceanic drilling program was dubbed “Project Mohole.”

Croatian seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić—the boundary’s namesake—observed that seismic waves travel through Earth faster below the Moho than above it, suggesting an abrupt change in the composition of the rocks. The textbook explanation is that the Moho separates denser mantle peridotites, magnesium-rich rocks, from lighter crustal gabbros, which crystallize from magmas. Rocks brought to the surface in volcanic eruptions or recovered at midocean ridges, where the crust is thinnest, support that picture. But seawater and other geochemical processes can alter those rocks; fresh rock samples from the Moho and the mantle could confirm their compositions and shed light on the formation and evolution of Earth’s crust.

“This is a foundational step in the plate tectonic cycle; we should understand it better than we do,” says Damon Teagle, a geologist at the University of Southampton. But the original Project Mohole was terminated after several test holes. And a 2016 effort in the Indian Ocean, the SloMo Project, didn’t make it beyond a shallow phase 1 hole.

Scientists believe the Moho is shallowest near fast-spreading ridges in the Pacific Ocean, where the water is about 4000 meters deep and the Moho another 6000 meters below that. To keep such a deep hole from collapsing under high subterranean pressures, drillers will have to pump a dense slurry called drilling mud from the ship through the borehole and back. Steering the mud through 4000 meters of water requires a new circulation system that Meng Xiang engineers hope to have ready by 2030 if not earlier, says Zhen Sun, Meng Xiang’s chief scientist and a structural geologist at the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey.

China took up the Moho challenge because the country’s scientists played little role in the discovery of plate tectonics and decided it was time “for China to make big contributions to the international community,” Yaoling Niu, a petrologist with the Laoshan Laboratory, said during his workshop presentation.

But the ship “will do more than Moho drilling,” Sun adds. China is planning a Deep Ocean Drilling Program to manage up to 30 drilling expeditions from 2025 to 2035, according to Shouting Tuo, a sedimentologist at Tongji University. International proposals will be welcomed, and all cores and data will be openly accessible to scientists worldwide, Tuo told workshop attendees.

Some investigators hope to revive projects left orphaned by the end of IODP. These include drilling into the Sunda Shelf, a vast geological formation beneath the shallow seas of Southeast Asia, to reconstruct sea level changes from 5 million years ago; looking for evidence of a 130-million-year-old ocean basin east of Taiwan that has since been swallowed by tectonic movements in the region; and probing the Mariana Trench, created by an oceanic crustal plate plunging into the mantle southeast of Japan, for tectonic, geochemical, and biological activity.

Bijl plans to submit an especially ambitious IODP proposal. He wants to drill sediment and rock cores at four sites spaced between Australia and Antarctica for clues to the origin and evolution of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The current, Earth’s strongest, has a large influence on Southern Hemisphere weather and also the future of Antarctic ice sheets, because it affects how warm waters reach the underside of vulnerable ice shelves that jut into the ocean. Bijl’s proposal calls for drilling in water depths up to 5000 meters in one of the harshest ocean environments on Earth. But he says the Meng Xiang, designed to withstand winds and seas during all but the fiercest typhoons, “is the ideal vessel to execute this drilling plan.”

Bron: https://www.science.org/c(...)-drilling-leadership

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De zuidelijke provincie Hainan is van plan om in juni 2025 een satellietproductiecentrum te openen

A super satellite manufacturing factory is expected to commence operation at the Wenchang International Aerospace City in South China's Hainan Province in June 2025, the aerospace city said in a statement on Thursday, noting that the factory will have the capacity to enable satellites to be launched immediately upon delivery.

The super satellite factory covers an area of 60,000 square meters, making it the largest satellite factory in Asia, and it is estimated to complete roofing at the end of 2024.

Construction of the factory and its supporting projects is now underway. According to the aerospace city, the site has already attracted nearly 1,000 aerospace companies and is set to become the nation's major satellite-related manufacturing hub.

Notably, the factory is located in the vicinity of the Wenchang space launch site, which minimizes transportation costs and other risks, according to the aerospace city.

Hainan industry has been accelerating the development of local aerospace launch industry. The Long March-12 carrier rocket blasted off at 10:25 pm (Beijing Time) on Saturday from the site's No. 2 launch pad, and sent two experimental satellites into their planned orbits, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The launch site will also accelerate the cultivation of the commercial space industry and talent in Hainan, with industrial chains covering spacecraft research and development, launch services, and satellite applications, according to the report.

Bron: https://www.ftpol.com/en/(...)20immediately%20upon

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