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　　2018 is a very special year for Chinese technology. In the face of the complicated and ever-changing international situation, it is necessary to increase investment in basic research and provide strategic “navigation” for the exploration of “unmanned areas” in science and technology. It is necessary to deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system, completely eliminate all kinds of constraints and inspire unprecedented scientific research creativity. strengthen our innovation and self-confidence, and accelerate the formation of technological originality that leads development and shapes the future. All of this needs to be carried out in an orderly manner under the guidance of the strategy of building a world of science and technology.

　　

　　2018 is a very special year for Chinese technology. Under the background of Sino-US trade friction, ZTE, Huawei and other incidents broke out, which made Chinese people have a deeper sense of technological innovation. Years from now, looking back at history, 2018 is likely to be a "milestone" year in the process of building China into a world scientific and technological power.

　　

　　Since R&D investment exceeded 1 trillion yuan in 2012 for the first time, China's science and technology has gained world attention. In 2016, China officially proposed the grand goal of building a world-class science and technology powerhouse, and deployed into the ranks of innovative countries in 2020, entered the forefront of innovative countries in 2030, and built a "three-step" strategy for the world's technological powers in the middle of the 21st century.

　　

　　In general, the catch-up of late-developing countries often goes through three stages. The initial stage begins with the introduction and digestion of foreign advanced technologies. The transformation stage needs to dare to explore and take the lead in capturing new technological strategic opportunities. In the catch-up phase, it is necessary to create new industries and gain global competitive advantage for the world. Open up new roads and new spaces, and realize the rise with“Positive-sum game”.

　　

　　At present, it is in the historical convergence period of the new scientific and technological revolution and China's transformation of development mode. The group breakthroughs in science and technology are endless, and the global political game surrounding technological innovation is unpredictable. Chinese technology in 2018 is at such a historic key node.

　　

　　Breakthrough 2018: continue to build the technological capacity to lead the future

　　

　　In 2018, China's scientific and technological innovation has made remarkable progress in many fields, laying a solid foundation for further enhancing independent innovation capabilities.

　　

　　The first is aerospace industry. China surpassed the United States for the first time with 39 launches, including 37 technology launches, 1 engineering launch, and 1 private arrow enterprise launch. “Chang'e 4” headed for the back of the moon and landed successfully in early 2019. Achieve the international geography Lagrangian L2 point of measurement control and relay communications with the launch of the “Magpie Bridge” relay satellite for the first time time. The world's largest amphibious "Zhenlong" AG600 aircraft successfully completed the first flight on the water. This is the first large-scale special-purpose aircraft independently developed by China in accordance with the requirements of China's civil aviation airworthiness regulations. In addition, the third C919 autonomous large passenger aircraft successfully tested.

　　

　　The second is the life creature. The world's first somatic cell cloned monkey, the birth of two Chinese macaques, "Zhongzhong" and "Huahua", has a brand new non-human primate model, which is of great significance for brain diseases and brain science. The world's first Huntington's disease gene knocked into pigs, and established a large animal model similar to the mutant gene of neurodegenerative patients, which can better understand the pathogenesis. The world's first synthetic eukaryotic cell, a single chromosome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is one-third of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae is homologous to human genes, providing new ideas for the decryption of life "Tianshu". The world's first mammal "male and male", "double father" mice survived for 48 hours, "double mother" mice can grow healthy and breed the next generation.

　　

　　New progress has been made in molecular design and breeding of rice. Based on the "Molecular Mechanism and Variety Design of Rice High Yield and Good Quality Characters", "Zhongke 804" has outstanding performance in agronomic traits such as yield, resistance to rice blast and lodging resistance. More than 80 rice varieties, such as “sea rice”, which were planted in Dubai, have exceeded the average yield of rice in the world. The wheat A genome was drawn using the Uraltu wheat material. In addition, the genome-wide information of two palm vines was deciphered for the first time in the world.

　　

　　The third is material science. The "super microscope" spallation neutron source was put into operation, and it was able to use the neutron flux to observe whether the high-speed rail wheels passed the quality and whether the aircraft engine was damaged or not, indicating that China became the fourth country to have the technology. The nuclear quantum effect of water was first revealed in the world, and the high-resolution vibration spectrum of a single water molecule was obtained. The intensity of a single hydrogen bond was measured, and the quantum nature of the hydrogen bond was clarified. For the first time, Majolana's arbitrarily discovered in the superconducting block material, the Mayorana fermion is a neutral fermion, and its antiparticle is itself. This research has opened up a new direction. The most accurate universal gravitational constant is measured at the moment. Many related basic scientific problems have not been solved due to the accuracy problem.

　　

　　The fourth is deep and deep sea. Asia's deepest continental scientific drilling, Songliao Basin successfully implemented a deep scientific drilling project with a depth of 7018 meters, which is the deepest drilling implemented by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) in 22 years. The “Rainbow Fish” completed the 10,000-meter sea trial, and the two “Rainbow Fish” second-generation landers achieved a depth of 10,000 meters in the Mariana Trench. China's first self-built polar scientific investigation icebreaker "Snow Dragon 2" launched into the water, with the ability to meet the requirements of unlimited navigation and global navigation. The first domestic aircraft carrier conducted a sea trial, marking the significant phased results of the aircraft carrier designed and built by China. Independently designed and built, Asia's largest and most advanced self-propelled hinged suction dredger "Tianlu" successfully sea trial.

　　

　　The fifth is electronic information. China began to develop "E-class super-calculation" (10 billion yuan), "Tianhe No. 3" prototype appeared, and the future can regain the world's first. Quantum computing achieves multiple breakthroughs. The entanglement of 18 optical qubits for the first time in the world has refreshed the world record of the largest entangled state preparation in all physical systems; the large-scale photon quantum computing chip has been prepared by the "femtosecond laser direct writing" technology; the quantum computing control system has been developed. A semiconductor six quantum dot chip was successfully fabricated. The development of important equipment lithography machines for integrated circuits has made new progress. The "super-resolution lithography equipment" has completely independent intellectual property rights, laying a better foundation for the leap-forward development of the third-generation optical devices and generalized chips. A number of companies entered the semiconductor industry, Huawei released the world's first 7nm mobile phone chip and the world's first rising series of full-field artificial intelligence.

　　

　　Six is intelligent network. Beidou began to provide global services, and completed the 10 arrows and 19 stars launch mission in 2018, creating a new record for the construction of the world's satellite navigation system. Beidou's high-precision basic products have been exported to more than 90 countries and regions. ICAO has approved the Beidouxing-based enhanced service provider identification number and standard time identification number. The International Search and Rescue Satellite Organization has incorporated Beidou into the global satellite search and rescue system program. The "Zhang Heng No. 1" used to monitor physical phenomena such as global space electromagnetic fields has been successfully tracked, making China one of the few countries in the world to have this technology. The progress of 5G research and application accelerated, and 5G commercial testing was carried out in many places. Huawei and Intel opened the world's first 2.6G band 5G call, laying the foundation for large-scale commercial use. China continues to maintain the largest market size of global robots, and relevant scientific research continues.

　　

　　Seven is energy transportation. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge was opened as the cross-sea bridge with the longest mileage, the most investment and the most difficult construction in the history of construction. It can withstand 16 typhoons and 8 earthquakes. The world's most difficult, longest and deepest submarine highway immersed tunnel, the world's largest steel bridge section construction, the world's longest submarine tunnel production floating installation, the rapid creation of two artificial islands, etc. set a world record. The "artificial sun" reached 100 million degrees for the first time, and the Eastern Super Ring (EAST) took a critical step toward the future fusion reactor experiment. The world's first nuclear power ball-bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor steam generator passed the acceptance test and has completely independent intellectual property rights. It is one of the fourth-generation nuclear power marking equipment. The world's first intelligent EMU (Jing Zhang High Speed Rail) debuted in the world for the first time to achieve automatic driving at speeds of 350 kilometers per hour, and for the first time adopted the Beidou satellite navigation system. Intelligent driving speeds up the test, and the new forces of Weilai, Baiteng, Weimar, and the home of the car are rapidly emerging, and pure electric Internet cars are launched. Baidu ApolloPilot is accelerating commercial application and deep development. The Transition flight car produced by Geely's Terrafugia Flying Car Company is scheduled to open.

　　

　　

　　However, unfortunately, the world's first genetically edited baby was born in China, and it is a long way to go for responsible research and development and innovation.

　　

　　Towards 2035: China's technological development enters the "fast lane"

　　

　　In 2018, in the face of the complicated and ever-changing international situation, every Chinese person has personally felt that it is necessary to increase investment in basic research and provide strategic “navigation” for the exploration of “unmanned areas” of science and technology alone; it is necessary to deepen the reform of the scientific and technological system. Completely break all kinds of restraints and stimulate the unprecedented creativity of researchers; we must strengthen innovation and self-confidence, and accelerate the formation of technological originality that leads development and shapes the future. All of this needs to be carried out in an orderly manner under the guidance of the strategy of building a world of science and technology.

　　

　　In response to the construction of the world's strong science and technology, China is actively planning a new round of medium- and long-term (2021-2035) scientific and technological development planning research work. The next 15-20 years will be a key time. Focusing on the external environment, the scientific and technological revolution, and its own system, China's innovation and development will likely face three scenarios.

　　

　　The first is a pessimistic scenario. China's innovation and development have been blocked and it is impossible to achieve stage transcendence. The new scientific and technological revolution is carrying out unprecedented challenges to human intelligence. China's innovation and development also requires tremendous reform efforts. This is the “reconstruction of ecosystems” including “cultural rebirth”. Never underestimate the serious challenges that will be faced.

　　

　　The second is the usual situation, the "Japanese virtue" of China's innovation and development. China will have a relatively serious dependence on the United States and other countries in the long-term leading technology core technology, and is locked in the track of technical follow-up. This scene is like Germany and Japan. It still needs to be "arched" around the United States.

　　

　　The third is the optimistic scenario, the transcendence of China's innovation and development to world history. China will become the largest innovative economy in the history of the world. This requires creating new research organizations and new value spaces to stimulate major original breakthroughs and form a new driving force for future development. From the perspective of the development of the world and China's science and technology in 2018, as long as we continue to strengthen our innovation and self-confidence, we must adhere to the road of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics, fully exert the creativity of hundreds of millions of people, and then successfully capture the "non-" in the new technological revolution and industrial transformation. With a symmetrical first-mover advantage, China will surely be able to achieve historical transcendence and make greater contributions to the development of all mankind.

　　

　　This article was published in the "Learning Times" on January 30, 2019, by Li Wan, deputy director and researcher of the Shanghai Institute of Science.