Why China’s Advancements in Quantum Technology Worry Others

 

China’s progresses in quantum computing will benefit its armed forces, currently the world’s third strongest, experts say.

 

Quantum states to a type of computing that lets high-powered machines undergo computing that are too complex for ordinary devices.

 

The theory discovered by American physicist Richard Feynman in 1980 has two key military uses, the committee International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a 2019 paper. It can decrypt encoded information and send cryptographic answers that intercept otherwise protected communication chains, the study says.

 

“I think the challenge is mainly in the dual civilian-military strategy of China where the government will recruit the private sector into its military renovation program,” said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in Hawaii. “Also, the government of China spends a lot of cash in research and development.”

 

This Feb. 27, 2018, photo shows a quantum computer, encased in a refrigerator that keeps the temperature close to zero kelvin in the quantum computing lab at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

China on the move

 

It’s uncertain how far Chinese experts have advanced quantum computing, but the Pentagon’s2021 report to Congress on China says the Asian superpower “continues its search of leadership in vital technologies with significant military potential.”

 

China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, an economic design, prioritizes quantum technology among other new departments, the report to Congress adds, and it aims to install satellite-enabled, global “quantum-encrypted communications capability” by 2030.

 

Quantum could help spot submarines and stealth aircraft among other “military vehicles,” said Heather West, a senior researcher with market research firm IDC in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Quantum computing can break “classical algorithms” to keep an eye on other countries military, she told VOA.

 

The University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei previous year made the first “definitive demonstration” of developing quantum mechanics for computations that would be “prohibitively slow on classical computers,” the science journal Nature stated. Google and NASA had claimed “quantum supremacy” in 2019.

 

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