华尔街日报与墨子：诚心还是酸？

中国的墨子量子卫星，不仅仅在中国是件大事，在全世界也是大事，因为是世界第一次。报道多了，这是一些例子：

 

中国发射全球首颗量子科学卫星“墨子号”将验证量子力学理论

铁流：中国发射“墨子”，外国专家如何评价

 

所以外媒评论是必然的，风格语言含义各有特色，《英国广播公司》的就较枯燥，出了科普，就一句话，中国发卫星，就是钱。

 

英国自己没戏，没啥好说的，美国就不一样了。见到《华尔街日报》一文，觉得标题超了通常不带感情的客观报道程度。

 

《华尔街日报》的标题是“中国最新的跃进不只是个大跃进，还是个量子跃进”。中国人都知道这典故，自然知道这标题是特选的。承认这是个“量子跃进”就是老老实实意识到这结果的重大意义和中国实力的代表性。

 

中国首次跻身全球创新指数25强

 

量子卫星烧钱，大家都知道，一个国家有钱也未必投资到如此的一个项目上，毕竟选择有轻重缓急之分，民生当在第一。不过一个国家在解决温饱之后，如何投资往往体现国家整体对未来的判断。中国在运用资金方面显然有巨大的效果，但问题也多多，产能过剩就是国家主导经济失败的最显著的象征。即使在科技教育方面，将资源放在几个尖端的项目上也不是能轻易断定优劣的，全面提高教育（小中大学），难道不比在一个尖端技术花几百亿更重要？

 

反过来不少及其先进的技术对一个国家的经济命运有着至关紧要的影响，有万亿美元市场的效应，也是一个国家必争的领域。

 

复杂。

 

量子卫星有以点带面的效应，是个物有所值的项目。它说的是“量子物理研究”，但中国美国都知道，其中一个关键是信息安全，没这，美国在中国基本长驱直入，中国没辙。

 

FORMER NSA DIRECTOR Michael Hayden: America is ‘really good’ at stealing data from other countries

 

研制头头潘建伟说是在2005年就“把握了世界所有最先进的技术”，然后在中国搞。欧洲日本美国都想搞，但政府就是没法让国内所有势力达成共识，在有钱不够分的环境下从某些人手里把钱投到这一项目上。我看来最形象的不仅仅是美国企业高管们的经商思维，也代表了老百姓的心态。

 

在美国，听到“穷人也得享福”的故事多了，不少人穷得每个月生活费用都不能保障，但却是宁愿借高利贷也要度假（所以美国高利贷行业很火），一般中国人简直不可思议，中国人忍着几顿饭少吃，省下钱应急或留在教育上，全是骨子里就有的本能。

 

所以不是利益权利扯皮，多少有点民族性。

 

也许《华尔街日报》的态度颇有代表性，既承认中国实质性的进步，也为自己忙于争吵不能着眼大局感到哀伤，只能酸一把？这酸劲，在讲起潘建伟时的用词是最有体现：国家撑腰，潘建伟把自己的博导维也纳大学Anton Zeilinger也给“跃进”了，现在博导Zeilinger是在学生潘建伟的卫星那做实验。

 

 

China’s Latest Leap Forward Isn’t Just Great—It’s Quantum

Beijing launches the world’s first quantum-communications satellite into orbit

 

BEIJING—A rocket that shot skyward from the Gobi Desert early Tuesday is expected to propel China to the forefront of one of science’s most challenging fields.

 

It also is set to launch Beijing far ahead of its global rivals in the drive to acquire a highly coveted asset in the age of cyberespionage: hack-proof communications.

 

State media said China sent the world’s first quantum-communications satellite into orbit from a launch center in Inner Mongolia about 1:40 a.m. Tuesday. Five years in the making, the project is being closely watched in global scientific and security circles.

 

The quantum program is the latest part of China’s multibillion-dollar strategy over the past two decades to draw even with or surpass the West in hard-sciences research.

 

Scientists in the U.S., Europe, Japan and elsewhere are rushing to exploit the strange and potentially powerful properties of subatomic particles, but few with as much state support as those in China, researchers say. Quantum technology is a top strategic focus in the country’s five-year economic development plan, released in March.

 

Beijing hasn’t disclosed how much money it has allocated to quantum research or to building the 1,400-pound satellite. But funding for basic research, which includes quantum physics, was $101 billion in 2015, up from $1.9 billion in 2005.

 

U.S. federal funding for quantum research is about $200 million a year, according to a congressional report in July by a group of science, defense, intelligence and other officials. It said development of quantum science would “enhance U.S. national security,” but said fluctuations in funding had set back progress.

 

Beijing, meanwhile, has tried to lure Chinese-born, foreign-educated experts in quantum physics back to China, including Pan Jianwei, the physicist who is leading the project.

 

“We’ve taken all the good technology from labs around the world, absorbed it and brought it back,” Mr. Pan told Chinese state TV in an interview that aired on Monday.

 

With state support, Mr. Pan was able to leapfrog his former Ph.D. adviser, University of Vienna physicist Anton Zeilinger, who said he has tried since 2001 to convince the European Space Agency to launch a similar satellite.

 

“It’s a difficult process, which takes a lot of time,” said Mr. Zeilinger, who is now working on his former student’s satellite.

 

Neither Mr. Pan nor the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is directing the project, responded to requests for comment. The European Space Agency and the U.S.’s National Science Foundation, which provides federal funding for basic American science research, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

China’s investment in the field is likely being driven in part by fear of U.S. cyber capabilities, said John Costello, a fellow at Washington, D.C.-based New America specializing in China and cybersecurity, pointing to 2013 disclosures that the U.S. had penetrated deeply into Chinese networks. He also noted that U.S. institutions are researching how to build powerful quantum computers theoretically capable of shattering the math-based encryption now used world-wide for secure communication. “The Chinese government is aware that they are growing particularly susceptible to electronic espionage,” Mr. Costello said.

 

However, quantum communication is defensive in nature, he noted, and wouldn’t benefit from what the U.S. has identified as China’s state-sponsored hacking program.

 

Quantum encryption is secure against any kind of computing power because information encoded in a quantum particle is destroyed as soon as it is measured. Gregoir Ribordy, co-founder of Geneva-based quantum cryptography firm ID Quantique, likened it to sending a message written on a soap bubble. “If someone tries to intercept it when it’s being transmitted, by touching it, they make it burst,” he said.

 

Quantum physicists have recently advanced the use of photons to communicate securely over short distances on earth. The satellite, if successful, would vastly expand the range of unhackable communication.

 

To test whether quantum communications can take place at a global scale, Mr. Pan has told state media, he and his team will attempt to beam a quantum cryptographic key through space from Beijing to Vienna.

 

“It would be enormous” if the test succeeded, said Ma Xiaosong, a Vienna-trained quantum physicist at Nanjing University who worked on early phases of the satellite project.

 

 

U.S. security experts also question whether intricacies of quantum communication can be simplified enough for use in a conflict situation.

 

“Inevitably these kinds of technologies have problems and things get messed up by the people using them, unless they have gone through extensive training,” said Peter Mattis, a fellow at the Jamestown Foundation who studies China’s intelligence services.

 

Whatever the challenges, the University of Vienna’s Mr. Zeilinger said, the satellite puts China and the field of quantum mechanics on the verge of a significant technological breakthrough. “In the long run, there is a good chance that this will replace our current communications technology,” he said. “I see no basic reason why it won’t happen.”

 

In a January interview with the journal Nature, Mr. Pan said the satellite showed China’s scientists had stopped following in the footsteps of others. To drive the point home, Chinese state media on Monday said the satellite had been named Micius after a 5th century B.C. philosopher who opposed offensive warfare.

 

“I think China has an obligation not just to do something for ourselves—many other countries have been to the moon, have done manned spaceflight—but to explore something unknown,” he said. 

 

 

 

[XC11]

Elon Musk 或 Paul Allen 应该做这件事情。