Pioneers: Pushing Boundaries

Jing Haipeng: Space Hero

Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng and his crew mate Chen Dong returned to Earth safely on November 18 after more than a month in space, marking the successful conclusion of China’s longest-ever manned space mission with Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou-11.

The core module of China’s permanent manned space station is expected to be launched around 2018, and the space station will begin full service around 2022, with an initial designed life of more than 10 years.

“We wished the mission could have been a bit longer because we had so much fun in space. It was a very memorable journey.”

Pan Jianwei: Quantum Leap

On August 16, China launched the world’s first quantum satellite. Named after ancient Chinese philosopher and scientist Micius, the satellite project, headed by chief scientist Pan Jianwei, was regarded as a big step for China’s construction of a space-based quantum communication network that is virtually uncrackable.

At a height of 500 kilometers, the quantum satellite sends individual photons to ground stations as it sweeps past. The precision required to hit the receivers has been compared to “throwing successive coins from 10,000 meters above the ground into a rotating piggy bank.”

“We will definitely see more scientific quantum satellites in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) aiming to solve problems that Micius couldn’t have imagined.”

Wang Yifang: Particle Physicist

In February, the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences published its findings from the Daya Bay neutrino reactor experiment, which was headed by Wang Yifang. Wang reported the most precise measurement on the neutrino energy spectrum so far and detected two deviations between reality and theoretical expectations, producing important data for future experiments. Wang Yifang, director of the Institute of High Energy Physics, reiterated his proposal in 2016 publications to build a 50 to 100-km circular particle collider to succeed the 27-km-circumference Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a plan that would catapult China to the forefront of particle-physics research.

“I am stubborn, in a sense, and I want to do my job the best I can. After I finish a project, if someone shows me how I could have done it better another way, I feel like I didn’t work hard enough.”

Li Hejun: Clean Energy Pioneer

China’s leading private clean energy provider, Hanergy Holding Group, founded and chaired by Li Hejun, launched a range of concept solar cars on July 2, marking a significant step for China’s auto industry. By tapping into the solar car market, Hanergy hopes to spark a revolution in China’s new energy vehicle industry.

China has been actively developing clean energy vehicles to curb air pollution in recent years. New energy vehicle ownership, though less than 1 million now, is projected to exceed 5 million by 2020.

Lu You: Gene Splicer

In late October, the world’s first clinical test of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, a genetic editing technology) was conducted at West China Hospital of Sichuan University in Chengdu by project head Professor Lu You and a team of scientists. Gene editing is the technology of inserting or deleting a segment to “edit” certain genes, and CRISPR is the most attractive related technology because it facilitates the synthesis of the compound of crRNA/tracrRNA.

China faces huge challenges from cancer amid a marked increase in new cases and deaths from the disease in recent years. Statistics show that more than 2.8 million Chinese people died from cancer in 2015, over 7,500 cancer deaths per day.

“Treatment options are very limited. This new technique has shown tremendous promise in bringing benefits to patients, especially the cancer patients we treat every day.”

Cheng Wei: Uber Defeater

China’s dominant ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, founded by Cheng Wei, announced on August 1 that it would absorb Uber China’s operations. The deal ended the companies’ fight for China’s ride-hailing market, making Didi Chuxing the only entity that has been powerful enough to impact Uber’s ambitious global expansion so far.

With the explosive increase of privately-owned vehicles in China, more people are able to enjoy the convenience of private cars. However, this comes with a price. With one in four of Beijing’s 20-million-plus population owning a vehicle, the 5 million cars have driven the mega city’s rush hour speeds down to a standstill.

“I don’t think Uber can beat Chinese companies just by burning cash. Didi understands more and works well with local entrepreneurs in its effort to build a global ridehailing platform.”

Chen Xiaodong: Embracing E-commerce

Amidst global retail decline, Intime Retail Group realized an impressive total sales volume of more than US$1.1 billion in the first half of 2016, which was largely attributed to the efforts of CEO and executive director Chen Xiaodong, who has worked tirelessly to embrace the internet. As a traditional retail giant, Intime’s online shops share information on frequent customers and offer a common payment service and inventory management system to compete with online retailers.

The year 2016 was difficult for China’s traditional retail businesses. Traditional business shrank by more than 10 percent and the growth rate for supermarkets slowed to 4 percent.

“When plunged into a harsh winter in your industry, don’t just sit there and wait for the arrival of spring. It won’t make your difficulties go away. Work, and work harder, for solutions.”

Wang Yongdong: A.I. Trailblazer

On August 5, Microsoft China released its fourth-generation Bing chatbot in Beijing. The new generation chatbot, developed by Microsoft's Asia-Pacific R&D Group with Wang Yongdong as Chief Technology Officer, has made major technological breakthroughs and realized real man-machine conversation based on an affective computing framework.

“I think it’s still too early to talk about artificial intelligence threatening humans. Science fiction writers have wild imaginations and the development of artificial intelligence is still at the very beginning stages.”

Liu Zihong: Thinner, Better

On April 1, Royole, the Shenzhen-based global leader in flexible display technology, announced a partnership with China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile telecommunications company. Through the strategic partnership with China Mobile, Royole chairman and CEO Liu Zihong gained the power to develop new flexible displays and sensors based on the insights of a company with nearly a billion subscribers.

In 2014, Royole introduced the world’s thinnest full-color flexible displays, with a thickness of 0.01 millimeters and a bending radius of 1 millimeter. In 2015, Royole began mass production of its proprietary flexible electronics at its production facility in Shenzhen. The company has also filed more than 500 patents (issued and pending) and utilizes materials, processes, devices, circuits, software, and product designs from a number of countries.

“In many Chinese cities, startups can easily transform technologies into real products because the cities have developed a sound industrial chain, from raw materials, chips, electronic components and parts to circuit boards.”

Tan Zheng: VR Heavyweight

From September 15 to 19, the 2016 China-France Young Leaders Forum was held in Zhengzhou and Beijing. Tan Zheng, chairman and CEO of ANTVR, presented his company’s second generation virtual reality (VR) headset to distinguished guests including former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. ANTVR was the only VR equipment producer at the forum. The leading Chinese VR company sold more than 200,000 VR devices in the first quarter of 2016.

More than 70 percent of China’s heavy VR users are male and 60 percent of them are aged between 25 and 34. Most are from a demographic that heavily consumes tech and digital products.

“There are two paths in any industry: closed and open. At this stage, ANTVR is taking the open path, which will help us avoid head-on collisions with overseas rivals.”