China has launched a military satellite into orbit. Its role: destroy space junk. China’s newest satellite will join roughly 5 000 currently in orbit. Of these man-made structures circling the globe, only around 1 950 remain operational. The vast majority of orbiting objects are junk, either decommissioned satellites or satellites that have encountered debris, breaking…
A Chinese electric vehicle (EV) start-up has revealed images of its brand new all-electric pickup truck, the EF1-T. Developed by EdisonFuture, the futuristic EV features a retractable solar roof allowing for on-the-move charging. In a press statement, EdisonFuture, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based SPI Energy, said the EF1-T’s sloping, retractable roof configuration incorporated “solar mosaic…
Chinese scientists have developed a method to create animal feed from carbon monoxide. The breakthrough could ease China’s reliance on vast amounts of imported soya beans to feed its enormous livestock population. The Feed Research Institute of China’s Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) said it developed a method to hasten a gas fermentation process that…
China has just completed building two new supercomputers with performance speeds that outstrip Google’s Sycamore – and that’s not even close. The pair of superconducting quantum computers perform sets of functions nearly instantaneously, whereas desktop computers would need around 30 trillion years to do the same. News of the significant technological success was broadcast by…
HT Aero, a Guangzhou-based startup backed by Chinese tech unicorn, Xpeng, has secured $500 million to build flying cars, with a potential eye on a 2024 commercial launch date. The round of funding is the single-largest in Asia’s relatively new low-flying vehicle sector to date, according to Business Wire. The Series A funding was led by…
China’s Shenzhou 13 mission has successfully docked with its space station. The three-person crew will spend six months aboard the vessel, testing core technologies and conducting several experiments. The crew launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu Province at roughly 18:23 (CAT) and docked with the Tianhe core module at 23:56, according to…
A group of Chinese researchers have managed to synthesise starch from carbon dioxide, more efficiently than nature. Scientists hope that creating the highly versatile material in industrial laboratories will save land and water, lessening the burden on traditional agriculture. Researchers at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,…
A Chinese startup, CellX, believes it can produce lab-grown pork cheaper than conventional production methods by 2025. The Shanghai-based biotech firm says it has the technical know-how to overcome some of the challenges posed to the young industry. Food scientists have explored plant-based and lab-grown meat alternatives for several decades now but hefty production costs…
China is ramping up its 6G ambitions at an unprecedented rate. While the world at large is still coming to grips with fifth-generation communication networks, a Nikkei Asia report indicates China accounts for more than 40% of the planet’s 6G patents. The next-generation technology is expected to be operational by the end of the decade.…
China has announced plans to ramp up its hydro-pumped storage capacity by as much as 400% to bolster the nation’s fast-growing solar and wind power facilities. A 2021-2035 development plan issued by China’s National Energy Administration outlines ambitions to increase China’s pumped hydro capacity, currently around 32 GW, to 62 GW by 2025 and 120 GW…