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Xinhua News Agency to launch first artificial intelligence news anchorwoman in March

The name of the new member of the news team is XIN Xiaomeng. She was created by Xinhua News Agency and the search engine Sogou and will make her debut during two sessions of the Chinese legislature meeting in March. She will be accompanied by a male AI trained in English or Chinese. Both presenters have the ability to stand and talk at the same time.

Xinhua German edition, February 26, 2019

http://www.sohu.com/a/297093909_120091099, includes video


Chinese researchers address biosecurity related to the belt-and-road initiative (BRI)

In a review in Currrent Biology published on January 24, researchers around LI Yiming of CAS Institute of Zoology discuss evidence that economic corridors between core cities and key ports along traditional international transport routes may also lead to the introduction of invasive species into new areas which may threaten native species and biodiversity. According to their analyses, approximately 15 percent of areas in BRI countries have high overall introduction risks of new vertebrate species as people and cargo move about. The researchers identified 14 “invasion hotspots”. Based on these findings, they call for stricter screening for alien wildlife, including imported commodities, vehicles, and equipment through airports and seaports and along other transportation corridors. Noting limited resources in many BRI countries, they also suggest the establishment of a special fund to support the operation of biosecurity measures.

CAS news release, January 25, 2019

© Chinese Academy of Sciences


People’s Daily announces China’s top 10 S&T achievements in 2018

According to a rating by People’s Daily, an official newspaper of China’s communist party, the following 10 achievements were most noteworthy:

  1. Discovery of the first millisecond pulsar by China’s spherical radio telescope FAST
  2. Successful launch of the environmental monitoring satellite 高5号 (High No. Five)
  3. Cultivating and harvesting rice in a tropical area of Dubai by CAS experts
  4. Successful test of the automatic pump dredger “Tianjin”
  5. Installation of Tianhe No 3, a class E supercomputer
  6. A nation-wide National Science Promotion Day successfully held on Sept. 15
  7. The 1st World Public Science Quality Promotion Conference held on Sept. 17, with the “Beijing declaration” on mutual understanding, sharing and promotion of S&T 
  8. The opening of the 55 km long Hong Kong · Zhuhai · Macao bridge 
  9. The 3d Future Science Grand Prizes awarded to 7 Chinese scientists (1 mill. $ each in life sciences, material science, mathematics and computer science), and
  10. Chang’e-4 lunar landing vehicle’s successful launch towards the back-side of the moon (meanwhile successfully landed there)

People’s Net, January 17, 2019

FAST radiotelescope in Guizhou © German Xinhuanet


China’s Chang’e-4 takes panoramic photo of lunar surface at far side of the moon

The image was sent back via the relay satellite Queqiao, which was operating around the second Lagrangian point of the earth-moon system, about 455,000 km from the earth, where it can see both the earth and the moon’s far side.

©China National Space Agency

CAS news release, January 11, 2019

According to WU Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the cost of the Chang’e-4 mission is equivalent to that of constructing a one-km-long subway tunnel.

China’s investment in lunar and deep space exploration is appropriate to the overall level of the national economic and social development, Wu said.

As a big country, China should make contributions to exploring the mystery of the universe and benefiting human society, Wu said.

CAS news release, January 14, 2018

Kenya signs MOU with China on R&D cooperation

Under the MOU, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Kenya and the Chinese Academy of Sciences will support a variety of science, technology, innovation and higher education cooperative activities between China and Africa in the areas of ecosystem and environment protection, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, agriculture, health, the development and demonstration of adaptable technologies via the Sino-Africa Joint Research Center (SAJOREC). SAJOREC has provided 122 scholarships to qualified African students to pursue post graduate courses in China and over the next three years will provide another 150 new scholarships to students from Africa. Future projects to be developed under the framework of SAJOREC will include the joint development of research and development centers for modern agriculture and traditional medicines, and a ground-based satellite data receiving station. 

CAS news release, December 18, 2018


CAS Beijing Institute of Genomics develops dog database iDog

© CAS Beijing Institute of Genomics

The database, jointly developed with CAS Kunming Institute of Zoology, hosts 127 resequenced dog genomes and a canine gene database. It is the first integrated resource dedicated to domestic dogs and wild canids, providing a variety of data services and online analysis tools to dog researchers around the world.

http://bigd.big.ac.cn/idog/

CAS news release, November 27, 2018

China’s Beidou-3 system is nearly complete and opens a “belt and road” corridor in space

Model of the Beidou-3 satellite system
Shown at an expo in Shenzhen on Nov 1, 2016 [Photo/VCG]

Last week, China launched No. 18 and 19 of the Beidou-3 series satellites (BDS). The basic constellation of 20 Beidou-3 satellites will be completed by year’s end. By then, the network will provide basic navigation service for countries or regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Beidou-3 has a higher positioning accuracy, to within 2.5 to 5 meters. Domestically, BDS plays a significant role in traffic regulation, as there are nearly 6.3 million public and private vehicles, including buses, express delivery cars and trucks equipped with the Beidou system for navigation.The number is expected to rise by 10 percent year-on-year. BDS applications have been extended to monitor trains, tourist coaches and vehicles carrying dangerous goods. Marine departments send information about typhoons and sea conditions to fishermen through BDS. BDS helps anti-corruption departments check whether officials use government cars for private purposes. It also plays a role in protecting historic sites, and tracking wild animals like leopards. Farmers grow crops using tractors, drones and other machines equipped with the system. Herdsmen use mobile phones to monitor their cattle and sheep wearing BDS locators on grasslands. BDS is also helping track containers on cargo ships, expose mine risks, locate leaks on gas pipelines, provide navigation for marathon runners, and to find missing elderly people and children.

BDS products have now entered more than 70 countries and regions including over 30 countries along the Belt and Road. The close economic ties between China and ASEAN have paved the way, as in Southeast Asian countries located in low latitudes, BDS is more accurate than GPS. Thus, BDS plays already an important role in transport and port management in Pakistan, land planning and supervision of river transport in Myanmar, precision agriculture and pest and disease monitoring in Laos, and urban modernization and tourism development in Brunei.

As early as August 2016, already over 700 Chinese smartphone models supported BDS, accounting for 21 percent of all smartphones sold in China. Since then, use of the system has much expanded in China and gradually extended over the belt and road. The globalization boom for BDS is expected for around 2021 when about 30 Beidou-3 satellites will span the globe.

CAS news releases, November 16, 19, 20, 2018

Cloud-based and robot services spread in China

According to Guangzhou Daily, Chinese banks experiment with a combination of face identification and finger vein authentication for idendity protection at self-service terminals. Compared with other biometric technologies, finger vein authentication cannot be stolen. It is not affected by roughness of the skin and external environment (temperature/humidity). Accuracy is high, and duplicates or counterfeits are excluded. It is also faster than iris authentication.

Vein recognition system, http://www.885.com/a/136595.html

In Alibaba’s FlyZoo Hotel in Hangzhou, the guest orders all details using an app. Once he enters the lobby, an interactive big screen has replaced the front desk, and a 1 m size robot welcomes and guides the guest. Using his mobile phone electronic ID card, elevators and doors are automatically operating via face recognition, and intelligent illumination leads the guest through the floors and into the room. Once inside the room, an electronic butler controls the indoor temperature, lighting, curtains, TV, etc. Guests can also send room service instructions such as food and water delivery through this butler, and robots with the desired products will be sent to the room. According to the hotel manager, the hotel’s efficiency ratio is 1.5 times that of traditional hotels of the same grade and the same scale.

http://m.caijing.com.cn/article/158013

Smart robot restaurants open one after another in Beijing, e. g., in Dongdan North Street. Food is ordered and paid using QR codes on WeChat. Clerks insert foodstuffs and set time on the panels of cooking automats. After about 300 seconds, the cooking is completed, and in one case, the robot sprinkles green onions on fish-flavored pork.  A robot supplies the meal to the customer. Robot restaurant have become a new focus of competition among major companies. At the end of October, the world’s first smart hot pot restaurant built by Haidilao opened in Beijing Zhongjun·World City. The second and third smart hot pot restaurant will soon follow. On November 10th, the first “Future Restaurant” built by Jingdong was officially opened in Tianjin. From ordering, garnishing, cooking, and transferring vegetables to dining and settlement, intelligent robots and artificial intelligence runs through the whole process of restaurant operation.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2018-11/13/c_1123703048.htm
Photo: A server robot delivers food at a restaurant in Cixi, East China’s Zhejiang province, Nov 27, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

Sino-Russian arctic expedition provides scientific support for “polar silk road”

Eleven Chinese researchers and 19 Russians participated in the second joint Sino-Russia Arctic expedition, which started in Russia’s eastern port of Vladivostok on Sept 6. After overcoming extreme weather and traveling 12,000 kilometers, they returned to the port of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on Oct 21. The 46-day expedition was jointly organized by the Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, based in Qingdao, Shandong province, and the Russian Academy of Sciences Pacific Oceanological Institute. Scientists from both countries carried out multidisciplinary surveys during the expedition, including ocean geology, hydrometeorology, chemistry and biodiversity as well as obtained a host of specimens and data from the atmosphere, seawater and sediment. An optical profiler developed by the Qingdao lab played a big role in the observation of the Northeast Passage and obtained firsthand data about fog, snow and low clouds during rapid weather changes. The Polar Silk Road via the Arctic is widely seen as the third arc of the Belt and Road Initiative, adding another sea route beyond the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, Africa-Mediterranean and South Pacific-Oceania.

CAS news release, October 31, 2018

Beijing aims at full application of connected cars for 2022 winter olympics

According to the Beijing Economic and Information Committee, Beijing Municipality wants to achieve full application of smart connected cars with automatic operation (L4 level) for the winter olympics in 2022. A demonstration system of efficient and safe traffic application will be formed, and the demonstration area will exceed 500 square kilometers. Subprojects include connected car technology, smart road networks, construction of a transportation cloud, 5G in-vehicle networks, and the development of a high-precision map industry. The size of related  industries is predicted to reach 100 billion yuan (13 billion €).

Japan JST China news, October 22, 2018

 

 

A short profile of China’s Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, CASC

The State-owned space and defense company has over 170,000 employees, 8 own acadmies and a dozen listed companies. In revenues, it is number 4 in the world after Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin. It is involved in the following activities.

Space missions.From 1978 – 1989, China conducted 16 space missions and all of them were satellite launches. During the 1990s, 39 carrier rockets were launched, and the last of them carried the first prototype of the Shenzhou spacecraft into space, opening China’s manned space age. From 2000 to November 2012, a total of 111 rockets sent hundreds of satellites, four manned spacecraft with eight Chinese astronauts as well as one space laboratory into space. In the past 6 years, 124 space launches were carried out.

Manned space missions. In October 2003, China carried out its first manned space mission, sending YANG Liwei to a 21-hour journey around the Earth in the Shenzhou V spacecraft. Till present, six manned space flights were conducted, totaling 68 days and circling the Earth 1,089 times. Chinese scientists have also launched a cargo spaceship to conduct several docking and in-orbit refueling operations with Tiangong-2, verifying technologies and equipment designed for space station.

Rockets. As the strongest and most technologically sophisticated rocket ever made by China, Long March 5 has a liftoff weight of 869 metric tons, a maximum payload of 25 tons to a low-Earth orbit, or 14 tons to a geosynchronous transfer orbit. The gigantic vehicle is tasked with transporting parts of China’s future manned space station and fulfilling Mars explorations.

Lunar and Mars missions. CASC started sending robotic probes to the moon in 2007 and carried out several lunar missions since then. It landed the Chang’e 3 probe, which carried the first Chinese lunar rover on the moon in December 2013. The company launched a relay satellite into space in May as the first step in the Chang’e 4 lunar mission, which will explore the far side of the moon and is scheduled to be made before the end of this year.

Navigation and positioning satellites.CASC has been working with Chinese space authorities to set up a vast navigation and positioning satellite network and a high-definition Earth observation satellite system. The Beidou network, mainly constructed by CASC, is one of the four space-based navigation networks along with the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS and European Union’s Galileo. Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite was launched, 42 satellites have followed and several in them have already been retired. Beidou began providing positioning, navigation, timing and message services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012. China has planned to place 18 third-generation Beidou satellites into space before the end of 2018. According to government plans, the network will be made up of 35 satellites before the end of 2020 to give Beidou global coverage. CASC also cooperates with space departments in designing and establishing a space-based, high-resolution Earth observation network that has had eight satellites.

CAS news release, October 12, 2018

Close to 1 billion Chinese use 4G and create a multi-billion IT business

According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the number of 4G users at the end of 2017 was 977 million, 70.3% of all mobile phone users. In 5G, China is on top of the world with the development of standards and experiments. Optical broadband is becoming standard specification of urban households, and the number of optical fiber connection (FTTH / O) users reached 294 million households. By the end of 2017, the number of mobile broadband users (3G · 4G) reached 1.132 billion, accounting for 79.8% of mobile phone users. The Internet penetration rate in China has reached 55.8%. The rapid increase of mobile phone and internet users has created a large telecommunications business: the total amount for 2017 was estimated at 2,750.57 billion yuan (1,9 trillion €).

Japan China news release, October 11, 2018

Six Chinese military trade companies at largest African Air Aeronatics and Defense Trade Show

At the 10th African Air Aeronautics and Defense Trade Show in Pretoria, among over 300 companies from 37 countries worldwide, there also was a China Defence mission with six military trade companies. Their emergence was widely noticed by the government, military experts and exhibitors. The mission showed missile weapons systems, naval vessels, military aircrafts, unmanned aerial vehicles, radar etc, using models, display panels and movies. The trade fair is the largest of its type in Africa and held every other year since 2000. Military equipment, police equipment, civil aviation equipment, humanitarian assistance and disaster management facilities etc. are widely displayed.

Japan JST China news, June 25, 2018

Xinjiang has a 600 km long rare metal metallogenic belt

Karakorum, Xinjiang Province (Wikipedia)

The Ministry of Science and Technology recently confirmed that the rare metal resources of Karakorum in Xinjiang are comparable to the rare metal metallogenic areas in western Sichuan. The exploration and evaluation was done both by remote sensing in the alpine region and rapid verification on ground, and a geologic and mineral resources database was established.

The southern three states of Xinjiang are among the most important metallogenic belts in China, with huge resource potential and superior metallogenic conditions. However, due to limited basic geological work and a low degree of mineral exploration, the development of a mining economy in southern Xinjiang was hitherto limited.

The People’s Government of the Autonomous Region and the Ministry of Science and Technology now agreed to stimulate exploration together with 18 research institutes, universities, geological exploration units and mining enterprises across the country. Three large-scale ore-concentrating areas and 37 prospecting targets were identified. Targeted resources include rare metals, lead and zinc, iron, manganese and gold.

Science and Technology Daily, Sept. 11, 2018

www.xianjichina.com

Food delivery robots tested in Shanghai

In some office buildings smart delivery robots are being tested to deliver food inside the building. The delivery robot is about half the height of a person. The customer places the order via his mobile phone, and the food delivery staff inserts the food and scans the QR code on the screen providing the address of the delivery destination. After that, the delivery robot equipped with automatic avoidance function enters the building at a set safe speed and moves forward toward the elevator, saying “Hello, a robot is working here. Please avoid entering the elevator, thank you.” After arriving at the delivery destination, the robot informs the customer of its arrival. The delivery robot have already passed one month testing and are said to currently receive an average of over 20 deliveries a day.

In Xi’an, another variety of unmanned catering robot is tested. It is suitable for operating in narrow spaces of a building, and has the ability to turn around and avoid obstacles, also indoors. The built-in space is suitable for placing small and light items such as takeaway lunch boxes and documents.

Japan JST China news, Sept. 12, 2018

China news network, September 6, 2018

 

Food delivery robot in Shanghai, copyright China News

Food delivery robot in Shanghai office building, copyright China News

Xi’an Servicing Robot