Regarding the quantum technology mentioned in the 15th Five-Year Plan, what's the progress of its commercialization?
On October 28th, the "Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five - Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Proposal") was officially announced. This guiding document not only outlines the blueprint for China's economic and social development in the next five years but also sends out a strong signal of scientific and technological innovation orientation.
With the word "science and technology" mentioned 46 times and "innovation" emphasized 61 times throughout the document, a particularly eye - catching statement is: "Promote cutting - edge industries such as quantum technology to become new economic growth points." This strategic deployment marks that quantum technology has been officially incorporated into the main channel of the country's economic development from a national strategic height, indicating that China will accelerate its layout in the new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.
So, against the backdrop of the 15th Five - Year Plan clearly proposing to support the development of quantum technology, what level has China's quantum technology actually reached? What substantial breakthroughs has been made in its commercialization process? And how will it affect the relevant industrial chains and even the entire economic landscape in the future?
Quantum Technology Moves from "Cutting - Edge Exploration" to "Growth Engine"
Looking back at the 14th Five - Year Plan, quantum information was listed as one of the seven cutting - edge scientific and technological fields for national key development, with its positioning more focused on basic research and key technology breakthroughs. However, the 15th Five - Year Plan "Proposal" clearly states "promote quantum technology to become a new economic growth point", which means that the policy focus is shifting from "scientific research breakthrough" to "industrial application" and "economic empowerment".
Behind this shift is China's profound insight into the global scientific and technological competition landscape. Currently, major countries in the world regard quantum technology as the core field that determines future scientific and technological dominance. The United States has continuously invested tens of billions of dollars through the "National Quantum Initiative Act"; the European Union has launched the "Quantum Flagship Program"; and Japan is also accelerating its layout. In this context, if China wants to achieve high - level scientific and technological self - reliance, "seizing the high ground in quantum technology" has become an inevitable choice.
The "Proposal" particularly emphasizes "strengthening the orientation of original innovation" and "producing more landmark original achievements", and proposes to "optimize the environment conducive to original and disruptive innovation", which provides institutional guarantee for the development of quantum technology. It is foreseeable that during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, the country will increase its support for the quantum field in terms of scientific research funds, talent introduction, and infrastructure construction, and promote the formation of a complete ecological chain of "basic research - technology breakthrough - industrial transformation".
After more than a decade of continuous investment, China has achieved a series of world - class achievements in the field of quantum technology, and its overall strength ranks firmly in the global first echelon.
In the field of quantum communication, China has achieved a number of "world firsts". In 2016, China successfully launched the world's first quantum science experimental satellite, "Mozi", achieving the distribution of two - way quantum entanglement between the satellite and the ground over a thousand - kilometer scale, and verifying the feasibility of quantum key distribution in the space scale. Subsequently, China built the world's first "Beijing - Shanghai Trunk Line" quantum secure communication backbone network covering 32 nodes, which has gradually expanded into the prototype of a national quantum communication network with an "eight - vertical and eight - horizontal" structure. Currently, pilot applications based on quantum key distribution (QKD) in government affairs, finance, power and other fields have been carried out in many places, and the technology maturity and security far exceed traditional encryption methods.
In the field of quantum computing, China has also made breakthrough progress. The "Jiuzhang" series of optical quantum computers developed by the team of Pan Jianwei from the University of Science and Technology of China have successively achieved quantum supremacy in the "Gaussian boson sampling" task, and the processing speed for specific problems is hundreds of millions of times faster than that of classical supercomputers. The "Zuchongzhi" superconducting quantum computer has also realized programmable two - dimensional quantum walks and multi - qubit entangled state manipulation, showing strong scalability potential. Technology companies such as Baidu, Huawei, and Alibaba have also entered the field, launching self - controllable quantum computing cloud platforms to lower the threshold for public use.
In the field of quantum precision measurement, China has made important breakthroughs in atomic clocks, quantum radars, quantum gravimeters and other fields. For example, the accuracy of China's independently developed cold atomic clock reaches less than 1 second of error every 30 million years, providing a more accurate time reference for the Beidou Navigation System; quantum radar technology shows unique advantages in detecting stealth targets and has been tested in military and civil aviation fields.
Overall, China is in the global leading position in the field of quantum communication, and has also entered the first echelon in quantum computing and quantum sensing, with the basic conditions for the transformation from "following" to "running side by side" and even "leading".
From the Laboratory to the Market, Application Scenarios are Gradually Expanding
Although quantum technology is still in the early stage of development, its commercial exploration has quietly begun and has achieved initial implementation in multiple fields.
Currently, quantum communication is the field with the highest degree of commercialization in quantum technology. Enterprises represented by Guodun Quantum, China Telecom, and USTC Guodun have promoted quantum key distribution equipment and solutions across the country. In the financial industry, banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Construction Bank have piloted the use of quantum encryption technology to protect the communication between cross - provincial data centers; in the government affairs field, private networks of many local governments have adopted quantum security technology to prevent data leakage; in the power system, the State Grid uses quantum communication to ensure the secure transmission of dispatching instructions. In addition, the construction of quantum + 5G integrated networks and quantum metropolitan area networks is accelerating. It is expected that during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, with the decline of costs and the standardization of technology, quantum communication will gradually evolve from "special use in key industries" to a "city - level ubiquitous security network".
Quantum computing has not yet been generalized, but its computing advantages in specific fields have attracted the attention of many enterprises. Currently, the mainstream model is to provide computing power services through "quantum computing cloud platforms". For example, Baidu's "Liangyifu" platform, Huawei's HiQ framework, and Origin Quantum's "Origin Sinan" operating system all allow scientific research institutions and enterprise users to remotely access real quantum hardware or simulators. At the application level, quantum computing is trying to solve complex problems such as financial risk control, drug molecule simulation, and logistics optimization. For example, China Merchants Bank has explored the use of quantum algorithms to optimize portfolio allocation; pharmaceutical companies such as WuXi AppTec are trying to use quantum computing to accelerate the calculation of molecular energy levels in new drug R & D. Although these applications are still in the verification stage, they have shown great potential.
Quantum precision measurement technology has disruptive potential in fields such as medical imaging, geological exploration, and inertial navigation. For example, the quantum magnetometer based on NV color centers can be used for magnetoencephalogram detection, with much higher sensitivity than traditional equipment; quantum gravimeters can detect the distribution of underground resources without drilling. Currently, some start - up enterprises such as Guoyi Quantum have launched commercial quantum sensor products, which are widely used in universities, scientific research institutions, and industrial testing scenarios.
Although the prospects are bright, the full commercialization of quantum technology still faces multiple challenges. For example, the technology maturity is insufficient. Currently, quantum computers have a limited number of qubits and weak error - correction capabilities, and there is still a long way to go before achieving practical and general - purpose quantum computing; quantum equipment relies on extreme environments such as extremely low temperatures and ultra - high vacuums, and the construction and operation and maintenance costs are extremely high, which restricts the popularization speed; standards for quantum communication protocols, quantum computing architectures, and security certifications have not been unified, which affects the coordinated development of the industrial chain; there is a serious shortage of compound talents with backgrounds in quantum physics, computers, and engineering, which has become a key bottleneck for industrial development.
The 15th Five - Year Plan Usher in the First Year of Quantum Industrialization
The 15th Five - Year Plan clearly lists quantum technology as a new growth point, indicating that China will enter an acceleration period of quantum industrialization. It is expected that the following trends will gradually emerge in the next five years:
Acceleration of national major projects: The country is expected to establish a "major project on quantum technology" to concentrate efforts on breaking through "choke - point" links such as core devices (such as high - performance detectors and low - temperature electronic components), operating systems, and software algorithms.
Accelerated formation of industrial clusters: Centered around cities such as Hefei, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, industrial parks will be built around "quantum +" to attract upstream and downstream enterprises to gather, forming a complete industrial chain covering chip manufacturing, equipment integration, software development, and application services.
Continuous increase in capital investment: With the clarification of policies, venture capital and industrial funds will increase their support for quantum start - up enterprises to promote the transformation of technological achievements.
Deepening of cross - border integration: Quantum technology will be deeply integrated with artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things to give birth to new business forms. For example, "quantum AI" can be used to train more efficient models, and "quantum blockchain" can build an unbreakable distributed ledger.
Coexistence of international cooperation and competition: While adhering to independent innovation, China will actively participate in the formulation of international quantum standards and promote the establishment of an open and inclusive technological ecosystem.
The 15th Five - Year Plan's positioning of quantum technology as a new economic growth point is not only an affirmation of China's scientific and technological accumulation over the past decade but also a far - reaching plan for future development strategies. From the launch of the "Mozi" satellite to the debut of the "Jiuzhang" quantum computer, China has accelerated its pace on the quantum track. Now, with the arrival of favorable policies, quantum technology is accelerating from a "black technology" in the laboratory to a "new driving force" in the market.
It is foreseeable that during the 15th Five - Year Plan period, China will accelerate the construction of an independent and controllable quantum technology industrial system, promote the large - scale application of quantum communication, the practical breakthrough of quantum computing, and the industrial implementation of quantum sensing. This will not only reshape the information technology landscape but also inject strong impetus into high - quality development, helping China to gain the initiative and master the future in global scientific and technological competition.
This article is from "Science and Innovation Finance Society", author: Yuan Fang, published with the authorization of 36Kr.