Day: July 6, 2019

By FengXuejun,LiQiang (Peoples Daily)14:11, June 17, 2019

Simonetta Di Pippo (R), Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, visits an ancient Chinese timing device at Chinese navigation exhibition From Compass to BeiDou in Vienna International Center, Austria, June 11, 2019. Feng Xuejun, People鈥檚 Daily

A Chinese navigation exhibition was held in Vienna International Center on June 11, 2019 showing the development of China鈥檚 navigation technology, especially the BeiDou navigation system.

China is a latecomer when it comes to modern navigation technology, but the country鈥檚 BeiDou system has developed rapidly in recent years. The system is leading the world in part of its functional indicators.

From 2017 to 2018, China sent 19 BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into space on 10 carrier rockets. At present, the BeiDou system has a total of 38 satellites in orbit. This year, the country plans to launch another 6 to 8 BeiDou-3 satellites and 2 to 4 of such satellites next year.

By the end of 2020, China will have completed the construction of the BeiDou-3 system, providing more accurate navigation services for global users.

All the components of the BeiDou navigation satellites are made in China, said Lu Xiaochun, deputy director of the National Time Service Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The most important independent innovation of the BeiDou system is the satellite atomic clock, which is the heart of the navigation satellite that determines the positioning, speed measurement and timing accuracy of the navigation system.

China鈥檚 Beidou navigation system has accomplished in 10 years what took the GPS of the US 30 years, and is equipped with high-precision rubidium and hydrogen atomic clocks independently developed by China. Lu attributed such remarkable achievement to the joint efforts of generations of the country鈥檚 scientists.

Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, said that the new Beidou navigation system will not cause a 鈥渨ar鈥?between navigation systems, but bring huge benefits to users technically. The co-existence of multiple navigation systems will improve both reliance and signal coverage, she explained.

In recent years, the China-developed navigation system has expanded service coverage and increased technological capabilities with a global vision, enabling more and more countries to experience the Chinese wisdom.

It has provided support to Pakistans transportation and port management, Myanmars land planning and river transportation supervision, Laos fine agriculture and pest and disease supervision, as well as Bruneis urban modernization and smart tourism.

The BeiDou system started serving the Asia-Pacific region since 2012. Its chips, board cards and modules have been used in navigation, mapping, precision agriculture and many other fields. The system has expanded its coverage to more than 90 countries along One Belt, One road, benefiting over 100 million users.

By the end of last year, the basic system with BeiDou-3 satellites completed construction and began to provide services for global users, which indicated further expansion of its coverage.

Experts pointed out that real-time goods tracking will play an important role in future commercial trade decisions. Currently, about 5,000 containers on 250 China-Europe freight trains have been equipped with high-precision positioning devices supported by the container positioning and monitoring system of BeiDou.

In the future, the BeiDou-backed devices will be installed on more than 100,000 containers, covering Europe, parts of the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia.

Chinas BeiDou satellite navigation system is becoming a compass in space to promote world connectivity, said Wang Qun, Permanent Representative and Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary of the Permanent Mission of the Peoples Republic of China to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Vienna.

The compass invented by ancient Chinese people made it possible for human being to explore and locate at sea 鈥?a prerequisite for the Great Maritime Era. The BeiDou satellite navigation system, which is under construction in China, is expected to build a more wide-ranging, integrative and intelligent system through high-precision, high-reliability positioning, navigation and timing services by 2035.

(Xinhua)17:16, June 17, 2019

SHENZHEN, June 17 (Xinhua) — Chinas tech giant Huawei will invest 100 billion U.S. dollars in the next five years to make network infrastructure more efficient and reliable, Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said Monday.

Despite the financial blows the company is bearing, Ren said there was no plan to reduce research spending and promised to make more contributions to theoretical science in the future.

Ren made the remark when having a dialogue with U.S. futurist George Gilder and Nicholas Negroponte, co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Media Lab, at Huaweis headquarters in Shenzhen.

(Xinhua)08:43, June 18, 2019

CAIRO, June 17 (Xinhua) — Huawei, worlds major network equipment supplier, could serve Egypt in making a leap-forward development for its technology industry, said Xiao Junzheng, charge daffaires of the Chinese Embassy in Cairo, on Monday.

Huawei could provide valuable opportunities for developing countries to adopt the latest technology achievements and accelerate industrialization, Xiao said in his speech at the fifth Euro-Mediterranean Finance Conference, titled MEDA Finance.

He said that Huawei, a leader in 5G network technology, took a path that provides an important reference for other countries to independently develop high-tech industries.

The Chinese diplomat said Huawei offers everyone more alternatives, while the only choice in the past was to pay high prices.

Xiao stressed that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) provides an open platform, not an exclusive club, and voices against the unilateralism and protectionism.

China has signed 187 cooperation documents with more than 160 countries and international organizations including Egypt, since the BRI was proposed by China in 2013, said Xiao.

He said that Chinas trade with relevant countries has exceeded 5 trillion U.S. dollars, and Chinas direct foreign investment exceeded 60 billion dollars, which created more than 200,000 jobs for local society in the past six years.

Egypts Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said that Egypt is witnessing changes, and moving to be one of the most attractive countries for foreign investment.

MEDA Finance is a good step to move the Egyptian economy forward, luring investment and encouraging exportation, Nasr said.

Meanwhile, Nasr added the Euro-Mediterranean region is facing challenges, which require regional and international cooperation.

(Xinhua)14:07, June 18, 2019

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) — A professional committee under Chinas Ministry of Science and Technology has issued principles of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) governance, pledging to develop responsible AI in China.

Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University and director of Chinas national professional committee on next generation AI governance, said Monday that the principles are introduced to better coordinate the development and governance of the booming technology and to ensure AI to be secure, controllable and reliable.

The principles highlight the theme of developing responsible AI, addressing eight tenets including harmony and friendliness, fairness and justice, inclusiveness and sharing, respect for privacy, security and controllability, shared responsibility, open cooperation and agile governance, Xue noted.

Zhang Xu, deputy director of the strategic planning department under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the principles have gained consensus across online suggestion boxes, expert reviews and consultation with multiple related parties.

Zeng Yi, a researcher from the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, noted that the principles issued Monday emphasized international cooperation, protecting the future of AI and building a community with a shared future for humanity.

It is the initiative and commitment that Chinas AI development makes to the world, Zeng noted.

He added that the principles also focus on the long-term development of AI and proposed to carry out forecasting research, which can ensure the development of AI in the future would benefit humanity, society and ecology.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the professional committee on new generation AI governance was established earlier this year in order to promote the healthy development of AI, strengthen the research on legal, ethical and social issues of AI and actively promote the global governance of AI. Drafting governance principles is the committees major task this year.

(Xinhua)14:15, June 18, 2019

LOS ANGELES, June 17 (Xinhua) — The Deep Space Atomic Clock, a new technology from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket into Earths orbit for one year in late June, according to a latest release of JPL.

The clock, a toaster-size device, is the first GPS-like instrument small and stable enough to fly on a spacecraft.

Currently, navigators tell a spacecraft where to go by calculating its position from Earth and sending the location data to space in a two-way relay system that can take anywhere from minutes to hours to deliver directions.

The new technology of the clock enables a spacecraft to know where it is without needing to rely on that data from Earth, according to JPL.

After deploying the clock to Earths orbit, engineers will test whether it can help spacecraft locate themselves in space.

If the clocks trial year in space goes well, it could pave the way for a future of one-way navigation in which astronauts are guided by a GPS-like system across the surface of the Moon or can safely fly their own missions to Mars and beyond, said JPL.

Every spacecraft exploring deep space is steered by navigators here on Earth. Deep Space Atomic Clock will change that by enabling onboard autonomous navigation, or self-driving spacecraft, said mission Deputy Principal Investigator Jill Seubert.