FILE:China - Exact Location and Date Unknown ( CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Animations of quantum satellite Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) in space

Hefei City, Anhui Province, east China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Control center for QUESS, scientists working
3. Various of scientists having meeting; man drawing on whiteboard
4. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Pan Jianwei, physicist, University of Science and Technology of China (starting with shot 3/ending with shot 5):
"As we have made great technological progress over the past two years, the efficiency of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution has been greatly improved. In this way, the load of the satellite will be smaller, whose weight can be reduced from a few hundred kilograms to dozens of kilograms. So we can lower the cost from several hundred million yuan to tens of millions. We wish to complete the research (of micro-nano quantum satellite) next year and have the conditions to launch it."

FILE: Hefei City, Anhui Province, east China - Exact Date Unknown (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Various of pan working with colleagues in lab; screen

Hefei City, Anhui Province, east China - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
6. Picture showing satellite-constellation-based global quantum network
7. Various of scientists working in center
8. Screen showing ground station sending information to satellite
9. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Peng Chengzhi, chief engineer, Micius scientific application system (partially overlaid with shot 10):
"In addition to current physical and communication experiments based on the Micius satellite, we pay more attention to the research on the next generation of spatial quantum communication network, which includes putting the quantum communication (satellite) to the medium and high earth orbit or even to the synchronous orbit (of the earth) in the future. At that time, we can use quantum communication 24 hours a day."
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10. Various of facilities in lab
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11. Sign reading "CAS Center for Excellence in Quantum Information and Quantum Physics"
12. Various of scientists working in lab, photonic quantum chip
13. SOUNDBITE (Chinese) Pan Jianwei, physicist, University of Science and Technology of China (starting with shot 12/partially overlaid with shot 14/ending with shot 15):
"We are currently doing relevant experiments and are very confident to achieve the control of 50 photonic quantum bits. Once we realize it, we will make a milestone in quantum computing, which means whether we can compute faster than the supercomputers or not. Meanwhile, we are testing a 60-qubit superconducting quantum computing system, expecting good results in the future."
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14. Various of Pan working in lab; introducing devices to reporter
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15. Various of scientists working in lab
16. Various of devices, scientists working in lab

Chinese scientists have made great progress in quantum communication and computing, improving the efficiency of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution and paving the way for a 60-qubit superconducting quantum computing system.

China launched its first quantum satellite Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS), nicknamed "Micius" after an ancient Chinese philosopher on Aug. 16, 2016.

In 2017, Chinese scientists achieved quantum key distribution from the satellite to the ground, and quantum teleportation from the ground to the satellite, based on experiments with the Micius.

In 2020, the research team demonstrated secure quantum communication between two ground stations, with a record distance of 1,120 km and no intermediate security relays, which is a new step forward toward the practical application of quantum communication.

Now the research team led by renowned Chinese quantum physicist Pan Jianwei from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei City of east China's Anhui Province is working on the establishment of a global quantum communication network.

"As we have made great technological progress over the past two years, the efficiency of satellite-to-ground quantum key distribution has been greatly improved. In this way, the load of the satellite will be smaller, whose weight can be reduced from a few hundred kilograms to dozens of kilograms. So we can lower the cost from several hundred million yuan to tens of millions. We wish to complete the research (of micro-nano quantum satellite) next year and have the conditions to launch it," said Pan.

Based on the Micius satellite-to-ground quantum experiments, the weight of the ground station has been reduced from over ten tons to about 100 kilograms.

The research team also used the satellite which has extended its service for two years to conduct various scientific experiments such as quantum precision measurement and quantum time-frequency transmission.

Pan pointed out that international cooperation is important to promote the development in this field and his team will work together with their counterparts in Italy, India, Canada and Russia to accumulate more experience for further research.

"In addition to current physical and communication experiments based on the Micius satellite, we pay more attention to the research on the next generation of spatial quantum communication network, which includes putting the quantum communication (satellite) to the medium and high Earth orbit or even to the synchronous orbit (of the Earth) in the future. At that time, we can use quantum communication 24 hours a day," said Peng Chengzhi, chief engineer of the Micius scientific application system.

The other application of quantum technology is quantum computing, and quantum computers are entirely different from traditional ones.

The classical computers store and process data as individual bits, each a 1 or a 0, quantum computers use a different foundation, called a qubit, each of that can store a combination of different states of 1 and 0 at the same time through a phenomenon called superposition.

Moreover, multiple qubits can be ganged together through another quantum phenomenon called entanglement, so that a quantum computer has capability to explore a vast number of possible solutions to a problem at the same time.

In principle, a quantum computer's performance can grow exponentially if the producer add more qubits, but instabilities will cause qubits to lose their data, so researchers are struggling to work on error correction techniques in order to let a calculation sidestep those problems.

In 2017, Chinese scientists realized the quantum control of ten entangled photonic quantum bits and built the world's first quantum computing machine that goes beyond the early classical computers, paving the way to the ultimate realization of quantum computing beating classical computers.

Then in 2018, the research team successfully achieved quantum control of 18 entangled photonic qubits, setting a new world record in this field.

"We are currently doing relevant experiments and are very confident to achieve the control of 50 photonic quantum bits. Once we realize it, we will make a milestone in quantum computing, which means whether we can compute faster than the supercomputers or not. Meanwhile, we are testing a 60-qubit superconducting quantum computing system, expecting good results in the future," said Pan.

When the number of qubit reaches 100, and the computing system's fidelity reaches 99 percent, it can dwarf classical computers.