Archive for ‘key technologies’

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22/05/2020

China has new US$1.4 trillion plan to seize the world’s tech crown from the US

  • The tech investment push is part of a fiscal package waiting to be signed off by the National People’s Congress, which convenes this week
  • This initiative will reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology, echoing objectives set forth previously in the ‘Made in China 2025’ programme
A conductor rehearses the military band on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing's Great Hall of the People in March of last year. China’s legislature is expected to sign off on a massive tech-led stimulus plan. Photo: AP
A conductor rehearses the military band on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People in March of last year. China’s legislature is expected to sign off on a massive tech-led stimulus plan. Photo: AP

Beijing is accelerating its bid for global leadership in key technologies, planning to pump more than a trillion dollars into the economy through the roll-out of everything from next-generation wireless networks to artificial intelligence (AI).

In the master plan backed by President Xi Jinping himself, China will invest an estimated 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion) over six years to 2025, calling on urban governments and private hi-tech giants like Huawei Technologies to help lay 5G wireless networks, install cameras and sensors, and develop AI software that will underpin 

autonomous driving

to automated factories and mass surveillance.

The new infrastructure initiative is expected to drive mainly local giants, from 
Alibaba Group Holding

and Huawei to SenseTime Group at the expense of US companies.

As tech nationalism mounts, the investment drive will reduce China’s dependence on foreign technology, echoing objectives set forth previously in the “Made in China 2025”
 programme. Such initiatives have already drawn fierce criticism from the Trump administration, resulting in moves to block the rise of Chinese tech companies such as Huawei.
How will China’s annual legislative meetings affect the stock investor? Five key industries to watch
18 May 2020

“Nothing like this has happened before, this is China’s gambit to win the global tech race,” said Digital China Holdings chief operating officer Maria Kwok, as she sat in a Hong Kong office surrounded by facial recognition cameras and sensors. “Starting this year, we are really beginning to see the money flow through.”

The tech investment push is part of a fiscal package waiting to be signed off by China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, which convenes this week. The government is expected to announce infrastructure funding of as much as US$563 billion this year, against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic performance since the Mao era.
The nation’s biggest purveyors of cloud computing and data analysis Alibaba, the parent company of the South China Morning Post, and Tencent Holding  will be linchpins of the upcoming endeavour. China has already entrusted Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment supplier, to help galvanise 5G. Tech leaders including Pony Ma Huateng and Jack Ma are espousing the programme.

Maria Kwok’s company is a government-backed information technology systems integration provider, among many that are jumping at the chance. In the southern city of Guangzhou, Digital China is bringing half a million units of project housing online, including a complex three quarters the size of Central Park in New York City. To find a home, a user just has to log on to an app, scan their face and verify their identity. Leases can be signed digitally via smartphone and the renting authority is automatically flagged if a tenant’s payment is late.

China is no stranger to far-reaching plans with massive price tags that appear to achieve little. There is no guarantee this programme will deliver the economic rejuvenation its proponents promise. Unlike previous efforts to resuscitate the economy with “dumb” bridges and highways, this newly laid digital infrastructure will help national champions develop cutting-edge technologies.

“China’s new stimulus plan will likely lead to a consolidation of industrial internet
providers, and could lead to the emergence of some larger companies able to compete with global leaders, such as GE and Siemens,” said Nannan Kou, head of research at BloombergNEF, in a report. “One bet is on industrial internet-of-things (IoT) platforms, as China aims to cultivate three world leading companies in this area by 2025.”

China is not alone in pumping money into the technology sector as a way to get out of the post-coronavirus economic slump. Earlier this month, South Korea said AI and wireless communications would be at the core of it its “New Deal” to create jobs and boost growth.

Nothing like this has happened before, this is China’s gambit to win the global tech raceMaria Kwok, COO at Digital China Holdings

The 10 trillion yuan that China is estimated to spend from now until 2025 encompasses areas typically considered leading edge, such as AI and IoT, as well as items such as ultra-high voltage lines and high-speed rail, according to the government-backed China Centre for Information Industry Development. More than 20 of mainland China’s 31 provinces and regions have announced projects totaling over 1 trillion yuan with active participation from private capital, a state-backed newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Separate estimates by Morgan Stanley put new infrastructure at around US$180 billion each year for the next 11 years – or US$1.98 trillion in total. Those calculations also include power and rail lines. That annual figure would be almost double the past three-year average, the investment bank said in a March report that listed key stock beneficiaries including companies such as China Tower Corp, Alibaba, GDS Holdings, Quanta Computer and Advantech Co.

Beijing’s half-formed vision is already stirring a plethora of stocks, a big reason why five of China’s 10 best-performing stocks this year are tech plays like networking gear maker Dawning Information Industry and Apple supplier GoerTek. The bare outlines of the master plan were enough to drive pundits toward everything from satellite operators to broadband providers.

China’s telecoms carriers push to complete ‘political task’ of 5G network roll-out amid coronavirus crisis

6 Mar 2020

It is unlikely that US companies will benefit much from the tech-led stimulus and in some cases they stand to lose existing business. Earlier this year, when the country’s largest telecoms carrier China Mobile awarded contracts worth 37 billion yuan for 5G base stations, the lion’s share went to Huawei and other Chinese companies. Sweden’s Ericsson got only a little over 10 per cent of the business in the first four months. In one of its projects, Digital China will help the northeastern city of Changchun swap out American cloud computing staples IBM, Oracle and EMC with home-grown technology.

It is in data centres that a considerable chunk of the new infrastructure development will take place. Over 20 provinces have launched policies to support enterprises using cloud computing services, according to a March research note from UBS Group.

Tony Yu, chief executive of Chinese server maker H3C, said that his company was seeing a significant increase in demand for data centre services from some of the country’s top internet companies. “Rapid growth in up-and-coming sectors will bring a new force to China’s economy after the pandemic passes,” he told Bloomberg News.

From there, more investment should flow. Bain Capital-backed data centre operator ChinData Group estimated that for every one dollar spent on data centres another US$5 to US$10 in investment in related sectors would take place, including in networking, power grid and advanced equipment manufacturing. “A whole host of supply chain companies will benefit,” the company said in a statement.
There is concern about whether this long-term strategy provides much in the way of stimulus now, and where the money will come from. “It’s impossible to prop up China’s economy with new infrastructure alone,” said Zhu Tian, professor of economics at China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “If you are worried about the government’s added debt levels and their debt servicing abilities right now, of course you wouldn’t do it. But it’s a necessary thing to do at a time of crisis.”
Digital China is confident that follow-up projects from its housing initiative in Guangzhou could generate 30 million yuan in revenue for the company. It is also hoping to replicate those efforts with local governments in the northeastern province of Jilin, where it has 3.3 billion yuan worth of projects approved. These include building a so-called city brain that will for the first time connect databases including traffic, schools and civil matters such as marriage registry. “The concept of smart cities has been touted for years but now we are finally seeing the investment,” said Kwok.
Source: SCMP

Posted in 5G network roll-out, 5G wireless networks, accelerating, Advantech Co, Alibaba Group Holding, American cloud computing, Apple, artificial intelligence (AI), automated factories, autonomous driving, ‘political task’, Bain Capital, Beijing, BloombergNEF, broadband providers, cameras and sensors, Central Park, Changchun, China, China Centre for Information Industry Development, China Europe International Business School, China Mobile, China Tower Corp, civil matters, conductor, coronavirus crisis, cutting-edge technologies, data centres, Dawning Information Industry, dependence, Digital China, Digital China Holdings, digital infrastructure, economic rejuvenation, EMC, Ericsson, everything, facial recognition cameras and sensors, foreign, GDS Holdings, GE, global leadership, GoerTek, Great Hall of the People, Guangzhou, H3C, High-speed rail, Huawei, huawei technologies, IBM, industrial internet, Infrastructure, install, internet-of-things (IoT), Jack Ma, Jilin, key technologies, linchpins, local governments, Made in China 2025, marriage registry, mass surveillance, master plan, military band, national champions, National People’s Congress, networking gear maker, New York City, next-generation wireless networks, northeastern province, Oracle, plan, planning, Pony Ma Huateng, President Xi Jinping, private hi-tech giants, pundits, Quanta Computer, rehearses, roll out, satellite operators, schools, SenseTime Group, Shanghai, Siemens, south china morning post, South Korea, tech crown, Technology, telecommunications equipment supplier, telecoms carriers, Tencent Holding, to pump, to seize, traffic, trillion dollars, UBS Group, ultra-high voltage lines, Uncategorized, urban governments, wireless communications, world’s | Leave a Comment »

27/12/2019

China launches heaviest satellite to test key technologies

CHINA-HAINAN-LONG MARCH-5-LAUNCH (CN)

 

Long March-5 Y3 blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province, Dec. 27, 2019. The rocket, coded as Long March-5 Y3, blasted off from the coastal launch center at 8:45 p.m. (Beijing time), carrying the Shijian-20 technological experiment satellite weighing over eight tonnes, the heaviest and most advanced communications satellite of the country. About 2,220 seconds later, the satellite was sent into its planned orbit. (Xinhua/Yang Guanyu)

by Xinhua writers Quan Xiaoshu, Yu Fei

WENCHANG, Hainan, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) — Aboard the third Long March-5 rocket, China’s largest carrier rocket, Shijian-20, a new technology test and verification satellite, successfully entered its orbit Friday night.

The rocket, coded as Long March-5 Y3, blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province at 8:45 p.m. (Beijing time).

Shijian-20, weighing more than eight tonnes, is the country’s heaviest and most advanced communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit, according to its maker, the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).

It will carry out orbit experiments for a series of key technologies, the CAST said in a press release.

It will demonstrate in orbit its heat transfer technology based on cryogenic loop heat pipes, an efficient thermal control device for space applications, to lay the foundation for the development of highly sensitive space probes.

The satellite will test the controllable deformation of shape memory polymers, a type of smart material that can switch between temporary shapes, to pave the way for the development of large variable space structures.

It will also carry out satellite-ground communication tests using Q/V bands, which lie between 33-75 GHz, within the extremely high frequency (EHF) area of the radio spectrum. These frequencies are used mainly for satellite communications.

“The major way to improve the satellite communication capacity is to expand the bandwidth of available frequency bands. If we liken the geostationary orbit to an expressway, which is now the most crowded in space, the use of Q/V bands will help to widen the expressway by four to five times,” said Li Feng, chief designer of the satellite with the CAST.

The test is key to the development of the next generation of high throughput satellites capable of delivering 1Tbps bandwidth for ultrafast speeds, he said.

Shijian-20 has the largest solar wings among all China’s satellites, with the total wingspan 10 meters wider than that of a Boeing 737 aircraft.

The solar wings will unfold twice, the first time after the satellite enters its orbit and the second after it flies around the orbit for about a week. The increase of the solar wing area will supply the satellite with abundant power.

The satellite adopts a hybrid propulsion system. Chemical propulsion is powerful but inefficient, and is used in rapid orbit change or satellite attitude adjustment to send it to the planned orbit as soon as possible. Electric propulsion is more precise and efficient but less powerful, which is suitable for long-term delicate adjustments in orbit.

Electric propulsion is also a preferred technology for future deep space exploration. Missions to explore Mars, Jupiter and asteroids are all too far away from Earth to be fulfilled by chemical propulsion alone, as it is impossible to bring the amount of fuel needed.

Shijian-20 will also test the adaptability of the DFH-5 satellite platform, which may serve the needs of high-capacity satellites for high orbit communications, microwave remote sensing, optical remote sensing, space scientific exploration, in-orbit service and other purposes in the next 20 years.

“With the government’s consistent support for the communications satellite industry in the past decades, we have developed the DFH-3 and DFH-4 satellite platforms, making China one of the few countries in the world that can independently develop large communications satellites and provide in-orbit commercial services,” said Hao Yanyan, product assurance manager of Shijian-20 with the CAST.

So far, there are more than 20 communications satellites based on the DFH-4 platforms running stably in orbit.

To meet the pressing needs of economic development, the research and development of the DFH-5 platform started in 2010.

According to the design, the takeoff weight of a satellite based on the DFH-5 platform can reach eight to nine tonnes, and its payload capacity 1,500 to 1,800 kg. The power for the whole satellite is more than 28 kilowatts, while the power for its payload above 18 kilowatts.

“According to these technical indicators, a satellite based on the DFH-5 platform in orbit can provide services equivalent to that of two or three satellites on the DFH-4 platform,” Hao said.

The new technologies verified by Shijian-20 will further promote the development of new satellites, especially the high throughput communications satellite and high resolution remote sensing satellite, which is of great significance to the progress of China’s space technology, Li said.

Source: Xinhua

Posted in asteroids, chemical propulsion, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), China alert, Earth, Electric propulsion, extremely high frequency (EHF) area, Hainan Province, heaviest satellite, Jupiter, key technologies, launches, Long March-5 rocket, Mars, Q/V bands, radio spectrum, Shijian-20, test, Uncategorized, Wenchang, Wenchang Space Launch Center | Leave a Comment »

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