Year-ender: China's sci-tech achievements in 2022

China achieved major scientific and technological breakthroughs in fields ranging from clean energy to COVID-19 treatment in the past year. Let's take a look at the key milestones.

China builds world's largest clean energy corridor

On Dec 20, the Baihetan hydropower station, the world's second-largest in terms of total installed capacity, went fully operational in the upper section of the Yangtze River in Southwest China.

Its operation marked the completion of the world's largest clean energy corridor, where six mega hydropower stations on the Yangtze work to transmit electricity from the resource-rich west to energy-consuming regions in the east.

The hydropower station marks a big step in the country's utilization of clean energy to help realize its ambitious climate targets of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060.

Hualong One reactor demonstration project fully operational

China's Hualong One demonstration project, a domestically designed third-generation nuclear reactor, has been completed and put into commercial operation, the China National Nuclear Corporation said on March 25.

The project's two nuclear power units– No 5 unit and No 6 unit are expected to generate nearly 20 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, equivalent to a reduction of 6.24 million tons of standard coal consumption and 16.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The project's completion is of great significance to the optimization of China's energy structure and the promotion of green and low-carbon development, and it will help the country achieve its carbon peaking and neutrality goals.

Tiangong space station marks key step in assembly

On Nov 3, the Mengtian lab module of China's Tiangong space station carried out a crucial transpositioning operation, marking the completion of the Chinese station's in-orbit assembly, according to the China Manned Space Agency.

During the hour-long operation that finished at 9:32 am, Mengtian was moved from an axial port of the Tiangong station's Tianhe core module to a radial port on the core module.

The lab module is about 17.9 meters long, has a diameter of 4.2 meters and weighs more than 23 metric tons. It has 32 cubic meters of inner space that can be used by astronauts. The spacecraft consists of four sections – a crew working compartment, a payload section, an airlock cabin and a service module.

There are 13 scientific cabinets inside the craft to hold scientific equipment. It also carries 37 extravehicular payload adapters capable of carrying scientific experiments needed to be exposed to the space environment, cosmic rays, vacuum, and solar winds.

Successful launches of Shenzhou XIV and Shenzhou XV; two crews gather in orbit for first time

This year, China launched two new crewed spaceships -Shenzhou XIV and Shenzhou XV respectively on June 5 and Nov 29. On Nov 30, the six Chinese astronauts from the two missions marked a historic moment as they met inside the country's Tiangong space station.

It was the first time that six Chinese were in a space station at the same time and the first in-orbit gathering of two Chinese crews.

After accomplishing many "firsts" during their six-month space station mission, three Chinese astronauts on board the Shenzhou XIV manned spaceship returned to Earth safely on Dec 4. The Shenzhou XV astronauts are scheduled to stay in orbit for six months to carry out a number of assignments.

World's highest automatic weather station set up on Mount Qomolangma

On May 4, Chinese scientific researchers established an automatic meteorological monitoring station at an altitude of over 8,800 meters, making it the world's highest of its kind, on Mount Qomolangma, known in the West as Mount Everest, on the China-Nepal border.

It has replaced the station sitting at an altitude of 8,430 meters on the south side of the mountain, set up by British and US scientists in 2019, to become the world's highest.

China sets world record in long-distance quantum states transmission

Chinese scientists made record-breaking progress in realizing quantum states transmission between two ground stations- the Lijiang station in Yunnan province and the Delingha ground station in Qinghai province, which are over 1,200 kilometers apart, via a quantum scientific experiment satellite, signaling a giant step towards constructing a global quantum information processing and communication network.

The experiment was led by Pan Jianwei, physics professor from the University of Science and Technology of China, and the related paper was then published in the journal of Physical Review Letters on April 26.The technological breakthrough combines the quantum teleportation scheme based on two-photon path-polarization mixed entangled state.

The long-distance quantum states transmission, usually being realized by quantum teleportation, is one of the major approaches for building quantum communication networks and an essential requirement for realizing multiple quantum information processing tasks.

World's longest quantum secure direct communication

Chinese scientists have realized the world's longest quantum secure direct communication, measuring 100 km.

The findings were unveiled in an article titled "Realization of quantum secure direct communication over 100 km fiber with time-bin and phase quantum states," published in early April in the journal Light: Science & Applications.

Before this breakthrough, the longest QSDC distance published was 18 km.

Country's first deep-water deep-stratum large gas field found in South China Sea

China National Offshore Oil Corp, the country's largest offshore driller, said on October 20 that the company has discovered the first deep-water deep-stratum large gas field in the South China Sea.

The Baodao 21-1 Gas Field, located in Qiongdongnan Basin, has a proven in-place of natural gas and condensate oil at over 50 billion cubic meters and 3 million cubic meters, respectively.

The gas field will lay a solid foundation for the construction of a gas production base of trillion cubic meters resources in the South China Sea.

China's first self-developed aircraft C919 delivered

On Dec 9, the first C919 aircraft for commercial use was delivered to China Eastern Airlines. The C919, China's first domestically-developed large passenger jet, made its maiden flight in 2017 and received a certificate from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in September.

As the first such model globally, China Eastern also needs to carry out more than 100 hours of testing flights to verify and confirm the operational safety, maintenance reliability and various operational support capabilities of the aircraft.

The introduction of the C919 is a milestone achievement for the domestic high-tech sector. The fact that China can organize such a big project means "Made in China" has reached a higher level.

Images obtained by Kuafu 1 released, realizing multiple firsts at home and abroad

On Dec 13, China released the first batch of scientific images captured by the country's Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory, which is specially designed to carry out comprehensive probes of the Sun.

The space-borne solar observatory is nicknamed Kuafu 1, after a giant in Chinese mythology who chased the sun. It was launched by a Long March 2D rocket on Oct 9 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gobi Desert. Being a near-Earth orbit mission, it is the world's first solar telescope in space that can simultaneously monitor solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

The three special pieces of equipment on the ASO-S are a full-disk vector magnetograph, a hard X-ray imager and the Lyman-alpha Solar Telescope, all of which are highly complex instruments that Chinese scientists and engineers are putting into use for the first time. The images of the Sun are obtained by the three payloads carried by the satellite while operating in orbit for two months, realizing multiple firsts at home and abroad and verifying the observation capability and advanced nature of the three payloads in orbit.

Nation's mightiest rocket engine tested successfully

On Nov 5, Engineers in China's space industry conducted a key test of the country's most powerful liquid-propellant rocket engine, a step forward in the development of a super-heavy carrier rocket.

Developed by the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, the 500-metric-ton thrust engine's first ignition test took place at the academy's testing facility in a Xi'an suburb.

The achievement is an important breakthrough in the research and development of the engine, which is four times mightier than China's strongest rocket engine, which has a thrust of 120 tons. The engine consumes liquid oxygen and kerosene and has the largest thruster chamber of any staged combustion rocket engine in the world, according to designers.

The new engine is expected to be the main propulsion on the Long March 9 rocket, a model under research and development that will be used to send Chinese astronauts to the moon. Upon its completion, the Long March 9 will likely become one of the world's largest and mightiest launch vehicles.

China's deep-sea manned submersible completes 500th dive

On Oct 25, China's deep-sea manned submersible Shenhai Yongshi, or "Deep Sea Warrior", completed its 500th dive and returned to the coastal city of Sanya in South China's Hainan province carried by the scientific research vessel Tansuo 2, or Exploration 2.

The mission was mainly designed to test the underwater performance of equipment developed for the Chinese Academy of Sciences' pilot deep-sea scientific research program and core technologies of other national key research and development projects.

During the 11-day trial, the "Deep Sea Warrior" manned submersible completed its 500th dive to a depth of 1,450 meters and returned to the Exploration2 vessel after nine hours underwater.

Since 2017, the average underwater time of the "Deep Sea Warrior" for all 500 dives was 8 hours and 17 minutes, with the longest time being 12 hours and 53 minutes. The average depth of the submersible was 1,957 meters, and the maximum depth was 4,546 meters.

Fish fossils found in China rewrite evolutionary history

According to four articles published in the journal Nature on Sept 28, Chinese researchers reported finding fish fossils that provided the "missing link" about the origin of the jaw, a key trait that gave rise to 99.8 percent of all vertebrate species living on Earth today, from giant whales to humans.

The well-preserved fish fossils, dating back to the early Silurian Period, were discovered in Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province respectively by a team led by Zhu Min, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, over the past decade.

The fossils include five new species of ancient fish, and among them are the oldest-known jawed vertebrates with teeth, which is significant. The crucial discoveries could rewrite the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.

New means of synthesizing carbon dioxide can help tackle environmental issues in a big way

According to a study published on the journal Nature Catalysis on April 28, Chinese scientists have created an efficient way of synthesizing carbon dioxide into energy-rich long carbon chain compounds like sugar and fatty acids.

It is a starting point for realizing light-reaction-free artificial synthesis of important organic products from CO2. Experts said the technology may turn a common greenhouse emission into a valued product, which may present a new way to tackle environmental issues and achieve a sustainable economy.

FAST telescope reveals unprecedented details of Milky Way

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, or the "China Sky Eye," Chinese scientists revealed the unprecedented details of the Galactic interstellar medium.

Led by Han Jinlin, a scientist with the National Astronomical Observatories of China, the research team published their new findings on Dec 10 in the latest ournal Science China: Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy.

According to him, during the sensitive survey for pulsars using the FAST, the spectral line data of the interstellar medium was recorded simultaneously. Though the fine calibration is still underway, the results available are already the most sensitive for detecting neutral hydrogen gas clouds to date, showing unprecedented details about the distribution of neutral hydrogen gas.

Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in Southwest China's Guizhou province, FAST started formal operation in January 2020 and officially opened to the world on March 31, 2021. It is believed to be the world's most sensitive radio telescope.

China rolls out core component of world's largest 'artificial sun'

On Nov 22, China rolled out a core component in the world's largest nuclear fusion reactor project, also known as the world's largest "artificial sun".

The production of the enhanced-heat-flux first wall panel of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor has been completed, with its performances substantially higher than design requirements, and thus suitable for mass production, according to its developer, Southwestern Institute of Physics under the China National Nuclear Corporation.

The ITER's first wall panel, designed to have immediate contact with plasma as hot as 100 million degrees Celsius, is regarded as one of the most pivotal components in the reactor core.

The ITER, one of the largest and most important international scientific research projects in the world, is reputed as an "Artificial Sun" since it generates clean, carbon-free energy in a way similar to the sun by emitting light and heat via fusion reactions.

Chinese scientists break aerostat altitude record

On May 15, Chinese scientists launched the latest model of Jimu 1 aerostat, a giant helium-filled tethered airship, to collect weather data at a record altitude of 9,032 meters on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

It was the first time an aerostat of its size reached this height, surpassing even the summit of the 8,849 meters tall Mount Qomolangma, known as Mount Everest in the West.

The aircraft can carry numerous scientific instruments that allow scientists to collect atmospheric data and study the moisture transport process, and track changes in black carbon, dust, methane, carbon dioxide and other substances at extreme altitude.

The Jimu 1 Model III is the latest of three airships aimed at collecting key atmospheric data on the plateau to observe the effects of climate change. The first model was launched in 2019 and reached a height of 7,003 meters.

First homegrown antiviral joins virus battle

On July 25, China's first domestically developed COVID-19 antiviral Azvudine obtained emergency use authorization from the National Medical Products Administration, China's top drug regulator, and was included in the latest COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment guideline on Aug 9.

The oral drug, developed by the Genuine Biotech Co based in Henan province, contains 35 tablets per bottle with 1 milligram per tablet.

The guideline stipulates that the drug will be used to treat adult COVID-19 patients with moderate symptoms.

Azvudine was first approved in July 2021 to treat HIV patients, and was also found to be promising in tackling COVID-19.

Chinese researchers breed perennial rice with high yields over years with one planting

According to an article published in the Journal of Nature Sustainability on Nov 7, Chinese researchers have successfully bred perennial rice, which can produce high yields over two to four consecutive years with a single planting.

The research was made by Hu Fengyi and his team from Yunnan University in Southwest China.

The article said that perennial cultivars are strongly preferred by farmers as growing them saves 58.1 percent of labor and 49.2 percent of input costs in each growth cycle.

The perennial rice created by Hu's team is an innovation in rice breeding. The crop can be brought in continuously for three to four years with no-till harvest once planted – and harvested twice a year, with an average yield of 6.8 metric tons per hectare per season – which compares to the annual yield of conventional rice of 6.7 tons per hectare.

The cultivation of PR, after more than 20 years of efforts, represents a cropping system that simultaneously achieves grain production, labor reduction and ecological security, especially for terraced and fragile farmland.

On Dec 6, the journal Science announced its top 10 scientific breakthroughs for 2022, among which were the findings on perennial rice by Hu and his team.

World's largest all-terrain crane completes first lifting

The world's largest all-terrain crane completed its first lifting at an onshore wind power project in East China's Shandong province on Nov 14, according to its developer -- the Chinese machinery giant Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group.

Named XCA2600, the crane hoisted a weight of 171 tons to a height of 160 meters at the 50-MW wind power project site in Shandong.

According to XCMG, the crane -- with a basic load capacity of 2,600 tons -- can lift a maximum weight of 173 tons to a maximum height of 160 meters. This capacity can greatly improve hoisting efficiency at super-large wind turbine installation projects.