The Chinese Quadrant of Quantum Technology

Securities Times reporter Yu Shengliang Ye Lingzhen

The development of China’s quantum technology cannot be separated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) directly under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As an important organizational hub, it has helped China’s quantum technology move from following to leading.

The three CAS academicians from USTC—Guo Guangcan, Du Jiangfeng, and Pan Jianwei—are known in the industry as the “Three Titans” in the field of quantum technology because the initials of their surnames in pinyin are “GDP.” They are China’s “top research team” for quantum technology research, and they help form an industry–academia–research collaborative model of “scientists as entrepreneurs.”

Hefei National Laboratory is China’s national team in the quantum technology sector. In the field of quantum computing, there are currently major technology routes such as superconductors, ion traps, photonics, and neutral atoms. Relying on USTC’s research strengths, it has formed a complete ecosystem spanning everything from talent cultivation to technological breakthroughs and industrial transformation.

Compared with Hefei in Anhui, Shenzhen’s quantum industry started later. In 2015, Yu Peng, president of the Shenzhen International Quantum Research Institute, was elected as a CAS academician. To tackle research topics that are more challenging and more innovation-driven, he chose “a second round of entrepreneurship.” Today, the Shenzhen International Quantum Research Institute has become a main force in quantum technology research in the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area. Yu Peng said that, in terms of research and industrial directions, the institute will focus on four areas and pursue a differentiated route.

First, quantum state control (quantum materials). This is a relatively fundamental research direction. It is also the foundational original-innovation pool that the institute builds, targeting Nobel Prize–level research results, to provide solid theoretical and materials support for subsequent technology R&D.

Second, the field of quantum computing. Developing in a differentiated way from USTC’s quantum optics direction (such as Jiuzhang optical quantum computing, neutral atoms, ion traps, etc.), it focuses on solid-state quantum computing and emphasizes superconducting quantum computing and silicon-based semiconductor quantum computing. Among them, silicon-based semiconductor quantum computing has become the institute’s core push direction in Shenzhen. Superconducting quantum computing, in turn, complements Hefei, leveraging each party’s technological strengths to achieve coordinated development.

Third, the field of quantum precision measurement. It will focus on optical quantum integration, led by young scientist Liu Junqiu, to build differentiated competitive advantages.

Fourth, the field of quantum engineering applications. With independent R&D of scientific instruments as its hallmark, it focuses on R&D of “core technologies” such as electronic lithography machines, low-temperature cold heads, and dilution refrigerators, and builds the institute’s core advantages.