China plus automotive

THE AUTO EDITION China’s auto indu stry a special report p4.

The automOtive Market: p5. an overview

EMBRACING ALTERNATIVES p6.

LUXURY,GREEN, HI-TECH, THe FUTURE P8.

NEW ENERGY BOOST p10.

AUTO MARKET INSIGHT p.13

A DRIVERLESS RACE: AIMING FOR AUTONOMY p.14

SPACE AMBITIONS

COMMENT ON CH INA: DRIVERLESS p.16

ASTRonomical ambitions p.8

Homegrown sat ellite systems p.19 MAKING ROBOTICS A CUTTING EDGE INDUSTRY p.20

CURBING CHINA’s biggest search engine p.22

THE ENVY OF THE WORLD CHINA’s RAILWAYS p.23

IS shenzhen china’s economic fut ure? p.24 A WARNING FOR CHINA’s scientific community p.25

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The Automotive Market: An Overview

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nternational car manufacturers are expecting the auto market to remain mixed in 2016 despite global car sales that are predicted to rebound from their slowest pace in 6 years. IHS Automotive, part of global information company IHS, says global car sales expanded a mere 1.1 percent in 2015, the slowest since 2010. The rate is expected to pick up to 2.7 percent, but manufacturers say the market will likely continue to be mixed.

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Mark Fields, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, told China Plus that the US and Europe are solid markets, adding that, “They are having moderate growth, which is good. China, we are experiencing growth coming off of the end of last year and the consumption tax reduction, which is helping the industry.”

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However, as Fields went on to explain, elsewhere the picture is not so positive, claiming that in Russia and Brazil the situation is “Still very, very tough; within our plan, but very, very tough and we expect it to be tough for quite some time.”

Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan-Renault, noted that the impact of the Volkswagen diesel-gate scandal had affected the market in some regions. Volkswagen admitted last September to cheating on emis-

sions testing of its “clean diesel” engines. But Carlos Ghosn said he was confident the sector would bounce back despite the recent setbacks.

Ghosn notes that as a result of a number of “polemics going around [concerning] diesel, we are seeing already the percentage of diesel in Europe going down. Consumers start to be a little bit wary about the future of this technology. That being said, this is a very important technology if you want to reach our objective in terms of limiting CO2, and particularly in global warming. So I think we’re going to have some kind of decline of the diesel, but I still think it’s going to be one of the main technologies for the car industry.”

Besides the fuelling issue, other car makers are banking on more driver assistance technology and e-mobility to woo customers in the near future. In reference to this kind of technology, Peter Schwarzenbauer, a Member of the Board of Management for BMW AG, talked to China Plus about the recent launch of a new product called BMW Connected.

As Schwarzenbauer explained, “We launched it in the US They are going to roll it out worldwide. And it’s basically, as you can imagine, like a mobility companion, so it learns extremely (sic) about you, what you prefer, and your mobility needs and it gets better and better the more it gets to know you. So at end of a day, it will take away a lot of the hassle you might have and will fulfil all your mobility needs.”

Elsewhere, as has been the case for many international car brands over the course of the past decade, automakers like Daimler are looking to lure more wealthy Chinese buyers. The company has rolled out so-called lifestyle marketing for Mercedes-Benz within its biggest market. Its Mercedes Experience Centre in Beijing, for example, combines art, fashion, retail, food and beverages, but amazingly does not sell cars.

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Embracing Alternatives as Competition Increases

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ajor automakers have been embracing China’s growing market for years and they are now aiming for big wins with hybrids and locally produced models. That was certainly the tone set at China’s biggest auto show - Auto China, which took place earlier this year, during the last week of April and the first week of May, in the capital Beijing.

At this year’s Auto China, the big players were out to impress China’s petrol heads; providing a sign of things to come in the future. General Motors’ luxury brand Cadillac showed Chinese punters its locally produced petrol-powered XT5 SUV, which hit the Chinese market in April.

Johan de Nysschen, President of Cadillac, told China Plus that China was important for the brand’s globalisation strategy.

However, de Nysschen was keen to point out that China should not be taken as a homogenous market, noting, “You also have to comprehend that China is a vast country, and the situation that you may find prevailing in tier one and tier two cities, may be quite different from tier three, four or five cities. And you may in fact end up with a diverging strategy that has to, at the same time, embrace all of these alternatives. And certainly we can anticipate in cities like Beijing where the costs of entry may indeed be for a far higher mix of full battery electric vehicles.”

Johan de Nysschen, who is also the former CEO of another auto brand Infiniti, added that the XT5 will be a big driver for Cadillac’s growth in the market this year, along with its flagship sedan CT6.

Johan de Nysschen also expressed confidence that Cadillac sales might grow by 25 percent in 2016 compared to last year.

duced its XFL model to much fanfare. President of Chery Jaguar Land Rover, Murray Dietsch said they had plans for hybrid cars in the future and expressed confidence in locally produced cars.

As Dietsch explained to China Plus, “Our sales this year for CJLR cars has been really accelerating. The first three months have been fantastic, and we’re expecting this to do great at the back end of the year; and in fact 50 percent of the cars that we produce this year, we’ll sell this year, will actually be localised vehicles and we think this car is going to play a really important part in that.”

The variety of sports utility vehicles on show earlier this year at Auto China provided further sign of their popularity in the Chinese market, despite diverging trends around the world. Haval, an SUV manufacturer affiliated to Chinese homegrown brand Great Wall rolled out its latest model H7 this year.

Pierre Leclercq, vice president and director of the brand’s design centre, said great progress has been made by the company in recent years. According to Leclercq, Haval is holding up well against other domestic and international car makers. “You know competition is something that every brand has to live with. Nobody should be afraid and I think it is an interesting time here in China. What decisions are we making? I would say we are doing well; we are improving little by little every day as the slogan of the company says. I think in (terms of) quality, in fit and finish, we are making a lot of improvements, we are investing a lot in R&D as well.”

You know competition is something that every brand has to live with.

Nobody should be afraid and I think it is an interesting time here in China

This year has once again seen the introduction of vehicles aimed specifically at the Chinese consumer. Chery Jaguar Land Rover, a joint venture of Chinese automaker Chery and India’s Tata Motors’ subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover, intro6

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ar shows around the world often tout the latest technology with concept cars that are unlikely to ever see the light of day. But a number of companies worldwide are hoping that the concepts on display earlier this year at the Beijing International Auto Show will fast become a reality.

This year’s show was highlighted by a number of luxury and concept vehicles on display. Among them, self-driving vehicles were one of the big crowd draws. Two self-driving cars developed by Chang’an Automotive Group commanded quite a few of the headlines coming out of this year’s event after being driven to the show (sans driver) from Chang’an’s facilities in Chongqing, around two thousand kilometres away.

Chang’an President Zhu Ronghua said that they were pleased with the progress that the company has made in the field of self-driving vehicles.

“I think the test was very successful. We have proven that the technology is mature enough, and can adjust to different road conditions. At the same time, we have also collected lots of data on road conditions and the natural environment to lay a solid foundation for further research and development.”

Aside from autonomous, self-driving vehicles, energy-efficient technology continued to command attention this year, as it has for the past several years across China’s automotive shows.

Around 12 percent of all the vehicles featured at this year’s show were new energy models, with most of them fully electric. Chinese authorities say they hope to have 5 million electric vehicles on the road by 2020.

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This push toward electric vehicles has prompted domestic car manufacturers in China to spend around 6 billion US dollars in new-energy technology over the past 5 years. Lorraine Yan, the CEO of the Chinese new technology joint-venture between BYD and Daimler, admits they still have a long way to go in order to convince the driving public in China that electric vehicles are a good choice. As she explained, “People always compare electric vehicles with fuel-driven cars, and believe that electric cars still require improvement in their technology.” As a result, educating a potential customer base is clearly as important as the role of research and development for domestic and international carmakers.

The Beijing Auto Show also featured the world’s first mass-produced car with built-in internet access, jointly developed by Shanghai-based SAIC and Alibaba. Liu Tao, the head of planning and branding for SAIC, told China Plus that the car “can connect to your internet account through the super account in the car, allowing you to use the internet conveniently and safely.” The creation of a mass-produced smart car is inevitably going to be linked to the push for self-driving vehicles, as the possibility for communication between such cars is huge.

However, despite the new influx of hi-tech features and concepts, luxury vehicles still remain wildly popular in China. For this reason, the Beijing International Auto Show was still awash with them this year. As Ge Shuwen, of FAW Volkswagen explained, “We can see great potential in the Chinese luxury market. Right now, luxury vehicles make up around 18 percent of all the passenger vehicles on the road in the United States. The rate is around 30 percent in Europe. But in China the rate is only about 10 percent. We expect a greater demand for luxury vehicles in the Chinese market as the economy continues to grow and people’s incomes continue to grow.”

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A New Energy Boost for China’s Auto Market

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ew energy vehicles, smart cars, and self-driving vehicles have dominated much of the discussion within the Chinese automotive industry so far this year. “Innovation to Transformation” was the theme of the 2016 Beijing Auto Show, and much of the innovation on show was related to the three types of vehicles mentioned above. In fact, at this year’s Beijing Auto Show, considered the most important car show in the country, new energy vehicles featuring hybrid fuel cells accounted for 20 percent of the 1,200 vehicles on show.

Du Guozhong, assistant to the general manager of BYD Automotive Group, explained to China Plus that new energy vehicles are experiencing a positive sales trend in the booming Chinese Auto industry whilst also enjoying the support of national policies.

Du also pointed out that, “The sales of new energy vehicles reached 330 thousand units in 2015, and are expected to reach 5 million units in 2020; effectively doubling every year.” While the figures look positive, Du also cautions that the market is currently waiting on the car manufacturers to develop. According to government statistics, it is believed that about 20 million traditional fuel-powered automobiles were sold in China in 2015.

Compared with the big advantage enjoyed by imported models and joint venture brands within the traditional vehicle manufacturing industry, the proportion of new energy vehicles is very small. This year, the Beijing Automobile New Energy Vehicle Co., the top seller of purely electric vehicles in China, launched a model with a range of 400 km, almost the same maximum mileage of the Tesla electric car.

Meanwhile, with the number of electric charging facilities steadily increasing, the obstacles that drivers face when it comes to charging and “range anxiety” will soon vanish. Once these obstacles are removed, it is hoped that new energy vehicles will accelerate the entire automobile industry in China.

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Although fullautomation is the direction, self-driving is available under specific conditions

Right: BYD’s Qin EV300, the Chinese all-electric variant of BYD’s Qin plug-in hybrid vehicle.

This optimistic view is shared by many of the higher-ups within China’s car manufacturing firms, and according to Fan Xing, the deputy general manager of Chery Automobile Company, “New energy vehicles represent a trend for the future, whether that’s in the international or the domestic market. The economic environment right now is not very good, but as for China’s automobile industry, the sales growth will be maintained at a rate of 10 percent every year by 2020. We are very optimistic about the auto market, especially with the continuously developing new energy vehicles as well as the traditional car market.”

Below: The US Tesla Model X, an all electric SUV which goes from 0-60 mph in 3.8 seconds

And aside from the positive outlook for China’s new energy vehicle sector, the industry is slowly getting to grips with the concept of self-driving vehicles, which have also been displayed at this year’s Auto Shows. Chinese models such as Changan’s RAETON and LeAuto’s new all-white LeSee concept car are equipped with relatively mature self-driving functions.

And though the thought of travelling in a driverless car may seem daunting to many, if not downright futuristic, CEO of Bosch (China) investment limited company, Chen Yudong believes that self-driving and other auxiliary functions may bring about a real technological revolution in the future.

As Chen told China Plus, “Self-driving functions will become stronger and stronger. The advanced driver assistance system, autopilot, automatic tracking, collision anticipation, and the automatic parking space search functions will be developed step-by-step. Although full-automation is the direction, self-driving is available under specific conditions. I think the next ten years will witness development in those fields in addition to (the goal of) fully automatic driving.”

Chen added that private self-driving is still subject to the calculation and processing of complexes. So while consumers look on with anticipation, it is likely to be several decades before we see self-driving vehicles roll up and down our streets.

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Above: China’s JAC iEV6S is a a pure electric SUV, with a range of up to 300 km on a single charge.

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Auto Market Insight

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ith regards to China’s auto market, articles detailing government attempts to push the electric vehicle (EV) industry forward are nothing new. But that does not change the fact that the market is still not quite there yet in terms of buyers. Despite this, managing director of Shanghai-based marketing and industry research firm Automotive Foresight, Yale Zhang believes that, “We are actually getting to the point where individual buyers are starting to accept new energy vehicles.” But even Zhang admits that there is still an extremely long way to go.

“China is now the world’s largest EV market, we’re talking about 370 to 380 thousand units in 2015,” Zhang told China Plus.

But the positive figures do not necessarily reveal the true picture of China’s market, as Zhang explained.

China’s status as the world’s largest EV market is, “Largely because of the institutional buyers in China last year, but individual buyers only make up a small share. There is still a long way to go to educate the market, to educate individuals and at the same time have more breakthroughs in the battery technology as well as the charging infrastructure issue.”

Charging infrastructure, as Yale Zhang mentioned, remains one of the greatest barriers to the promotion of electric vehicles within China. The widespread lack of such facilities means that so-called range anxiety is still very much a deciding factor which prevents people from considering purchasing an electric vehicle in the first place. Some commentators have commented that a lack of regulation is the biggest barrier to the widespread adoption of charging facilities. Competing companies and standards are often cited as barriers to the development of EV charging infrastructure.

However, since 2011, China has had charging infrastructure standards in place. As Yale Zhang explains, “Before 2011 we didn’t really have (standards), so all of the manufacturers (worked out) the standards on their own. But after 2011 we have a national standard for slow charging, and then we also have a fast charging standard; Chinese national standards. So, basically, after 2014 and with all of the new vehicles produced after 2014, the charging sockets, interfaces and also the protocol should follow this national standard.” However, the development of facilities prior to this standard being

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passed in 2011 has led to an uneven level of development for China’s electric charging infrastructure. As Zhang sums up, “There are several bottlenecks that are still there after many years of talking and developing, but we still see that these several barriers are pretty strong.”

The development of Chinese cities may also hamper the growth of the EV market, something which is quite clear when one considers the facilities required to charge a Tesla electric vehicle. Tesla owners are required to install a charging facility within their home, and as Zhang notes, “It has to be an independent house, otherwise the local state grid probably won’t allow you to install that kind of a machine because it would cause a bigger current in the network.” With most people living in apartments, without private garage and not always with the luxury of a parking space, prospective EV owners would face a further challenge in charging their vehicles.

In an effort to encourage people to think about buying an electric vehicle, the government put in place a generous subsidy framework which is due to expire after 2020. Over the next two years, the subsidy will decrease by 20 percent each year, and in 2019 and 2020 it will be cut by another 25 percent. As Zhang notes, “Basically by the end of this decade, the subsidy should be around 50 or 60 percent of the current amount.”

According to Yale Zhang of AutoForesight, the natural development of the industry without government support is the biggest question mark so far. “The reason we had sales of 380, 000 units was mainly because of the government subsidy. We’re talking about (a subsidy of) basically 120,000 RMB for a pure EV passenger car, if this car can drive above 250 km per charge. If you have a shorter driving range, then the subsidy will be relatively smaller. They have different subsidy categories. But in general, if you have a larger battery, this EV will be quite expensive. We’re talking about 300,000 RMB easily, compared with a local carmaker’s car, which is usually below 100,000 RMB. So, even if you have this 120,000 RMB subsidy, that price is still very high. If you calculate this subsidy versus the retail price, you’re talking about a 40 – 45 percent subsidy actually.”

“If you factor in the license plate value, like in Shanghai where a car’s license plate is worth 90,000 RMB, that will be given for free; in Beijing the car plate is also very valuable.

If you include this value in (the retail price) in Shanghai or Beijing, this kind of subsidy easily can be more than 50 percent, or sometimes maybe 60 percent of the car’s retail price.

So that’s also probably one of the reasons why the EV retail price in China is a little bit too high, because some of the carmakers will purposefully position their car’s retail price higher so that they can have a very good profit; even if they only sell only a couple hundred EVs they can still have a very good profit. So, we actually do have this kind of a worry after 5 years; if there’s no subsidy will this industry be able to lower the EV price to a reasonable or affordable level?

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A DRIVERLESS RACE

Below: the LeSEE, Le Eco’s fully autonomous electric concept vehicle.

The car’s steering wheel retracts when the car is placed in autonomous drive mode.

The car’s self-driving and autonomous parking abilities are all controlled via voice commands issued via a mobile phone and Le Eco claims that the car can drive without a driver at speeds of up to 130mph.

A Driverless Race: Aiming for Autonomy in the Vehicle

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he race to produce a self-driving car has become one of the most important tasks for the leading companies within the automotive world today. A number of prototypes were on display earlier this year at the Auto China 2016 motor show, which took place in Beijing during the last week of April and the first week of May. The prototypes on display included models designed and created by Chinese manufacturers who are becoming increasingly keener to exploit the growing interest in this fast developing market.

Xuan Fei, a car salesman in Beijing told China Plus that the technology could indeed change the future. As Xuan enthused, “If these automatic cars could replace the traditional type of vehicles, I believe that in the future, traffic accidents, and certain traffic inconveniences will definitely decrease quite dramatically.”

Chang’an Automobile, a well-known Chinese car manufacturer specializing in passenger cars and minivan production, showcased its prototype self-driving sedans at this year’s Beijing Auto Show.

With a test engineer behind the wheel, keeping his hands in his lap at all times, the automated system was able to guide the car along a public highway at 80 kilometers per hour. Furthermore, the self-driving vehicle was also able to adjust speed for traffic signs and speed-limit signs whilst maintaining course in its own lane.

However, also after testing some of the self-driving vehicles, car interface engineer Bill Xing says that although it is good to experience such a drive, these types of vehicles are still in the process of development. “First off, this is a test car, a demonstration car, and the arrangement of the equipment inside it isn’t very logical. But I think that if such a car were to be developed successfully, it would be very convenient to travel in one. Back there, at the end of the test drive, it ran into a few problems, but my hand was able to assist it so that it could basically complete the drive, so I think on the whole it was a good test drive.”

Li Zengwen, a development engineer for Chang’an, hails the car’s self-drive capabilities, pointing out that, “Because our self-driving vehicle system has already developed up to this point, we think that in terms of reliability and its degree of maturity, it’s already pretty good. We’ve already carried out a large amount of tests in the past, and we can already complete a long-distance test in actual conditions on real public roads.”

Obviously, Chinese companies are far from alone when it comes to developing driverless technology. They face strong competition from high tech companies around the world such as Google and Apple. Finbarr O’Neill, president of the global marketing information service company J.D. Power, believes that China has some way to go to in order to become a global pacesetter in the world of autonomous driving.

According to one of the firm’s executives, a self-driving model should be on the market in the next 2 to 3 years, with the automaker spending over 770 million U.S. dollars in an attempt to further their technology by 2020.

This year, the Beijing Automotive Industry Company (BAIC) has allowed car enthusiasts and members of the media to test out several of its self-driving demo car models on test track courses. After being lucky enough to test out BAIC’s offerings, 14

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If these automatic cars could replace the traditional type of vehicles, I believe that in the future, traffic accidents, and certain traffic inconveniences will definitely decrease quite dramatically

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Though a Chang’An executive has claimed that a self-driving car will be on the market in the next 2 to 3 years, as O’Neill points out, “I think autonomous cars are some distance off; there are a number of issues which have to be resolved there.

But the expectation for these features is relatively high, as is the conductivity that people expect in a car.”

Figures from last year’s World Economic Forum survey suggest that 75 percent of Chinese citizens might consider riding in a self-driving car. Boston Consulting Group, a world leading advisor on business strategy, has also predicted that China will become the largest market for autonomous features within the next two decades.

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Commenting on China: Driverless Vehicles

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recent World Economic Forum survey suggested that 75 percent of Chinese motorists would be willing to ride in a self-driving car against just 50 percent of Americans. Clearly, if such figures are to be believed, one would imagine that there is considerable scope for disruptive innovation to drastically change the car market in China forever. As part of China Plus Magazine’s new feature, Commenting on China, we seek comment from academics and industry insiders to shed light on this issue’s main topic, driverless vehicles. This issue, we seek comment from Terrill L. Frantz, Professor of Management from Peking University HSBC Business School, regarding the trend towards driverless vehicles in China and worldwide.

A Renewed Conceptual Interest The driverless cars to me are a classic example of what we call technology push rather than demand or consumer pull. I really do not think consumers are pulling this technology by any means. You’ve got companies like Google who specialize in software and AI etcetera, pushing their product, their technology, in the car space.

I was a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon, so I know these people that are inventing these capabilities and I’ve seen the driverless cars some 15 years ago now.

So, it’s really a technology push situation. I don’t see people out there saying I need to have this driverless car. And so, the other reason there’s a technology push is Google’s pushing the software world, among other companies, but then you also have the automobile manufacturers that quite frankly have run out of new improvements on their cars. To the industry’s credit, cars are pretty safe, and pretty reliable.

How far away are we from this technology becoming a reality?

The reality is, it’s here now. These cars are on the street as we know from the recent Google crash incident. It is there now. I think what the governor of this engine, or the idea is going to be really is the

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legal system because this presents far more complex legal issues than simply the privacy of a smartphone.

job opportunities and learning opportunities for people, so there’s no worry about this.

I think that’s going to be the limiting factor here. I’m looking at decades, maybe two decades, until this happens.

There might be one extension to this that could speed this up. The notion of an autonomous car by definition means that it operates on its own.

People are very vulnerable to changes that are presented by a business. Individuals are very vulnerable to the direction of business and the culture will change and the habits will change.

But I think where we’re actually going to end up eventually is where the cars themselves communicate with one another rather than relying on human beings to step in on an issue.

So, when two cars are travelling down the street, they will be communicating with one another saying, “I’m turning right, so beware of that.” I don’t think we’re going to get serious uptake on this until we actually have the cars communicating with one another, which could be another ten years.

One of the things that’s special about this driverless car situation is that, at least in my experience, people enjoy driving.

You’re actually taking something away from the consumer. At least in the United States, driving on a highway for two hours can be quite relaxing, believe it or not, given all the other things we have going on in our life.

Finally, Commenting on China, Jiang Chen Senior Industrial Designer and Lecturer at the Dept. of Transportation and Design, Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing shares his thoughts on the concept of driverless vehicles.

When we mention autonomous cars, the technology is really focusing on the software. I think all the tech giants and their involvement will really be beneficial to this. All these technology companies are really good at marketing their cars through new media. For example, if you look at Tesla, they actually have no advertising budget. They don’t have any commercials, they used word of mouth, built a

good product and had people following it and promoting it.

So, that is a new approach to part of the development, so I think the involvement of tech companies will breathe some fresh air into an otherwise very traditional and old industry.

75% of Chinese motorists versus 50% of Americans. Why the discrepancy?

I think the car culture is relatively short in China and most people did not really grow up with the culture like the culture that exists in the States. So, I think (Chinese) people might not have such an attachment to driving; I think cars here are more of a status symbol as well as for convenience.

That makes it easier for them to be detached from driving.

Also, the driving conditions here are generally very bad.

People would be very happy to be lifted up from the burden of driving here.

Is China developing its own car culture?

The Chinese consumer is actually very knowledgeable in terms of what each company or country has to offer, especially among affluent consumers there is already a culture around cars.

I’d say there is a large number of people, at least in the United States, I can’t speak for China, that actually do enjoy driving to some extent. So (manufacturers) would actually be taking something away, which has even more challenges when you want to try to disrupt the industry.

Also Commenting on China, Liu Baocheng, Professor at the University of International Business and Economics, provides his brief analysis of the impact that such technology could have on the labour market as well as upon consumer trends.

Disrupting the Game As to when the autonomous car can be used on a mass scale, Ford forecasts by 2020, Baidu by 2019, Toyota will make cars available by 2020, Daimler, 2020; so it seems that this is really something that is on the horizon already. This is really disruptive technology and disruptive technology means changing the entire game.

It’s not only how it works but how socially it will work out with the status quo. Of course, people will be laid off in the conventional industry and there will be new jobs, like maintenance and traffic control. Of course, the emerging new type of industry will require new skills and people will be adaptive.

And some workers will have to be phased out and if they are quick learners they will be able to catch up with the new demand. So, any new technology may lead to the demise of certain job opportunities, but it’s going to create more

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Home-grown Satellite Systems

Astronomical Ambitions, China’s Space Plan, 2020

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arlier this year, China released details of a series of ambitious plans for space exploration in the coming years. They include the country’s Mars mission probe set to be launched around 2020, as well as the completion of China’s space station in 2022.

The plan was released to coincide with China’s first ever Space Day, falling on the 46th anniversary of the successful launch of the country’s first satellite, Dong Fang Hong. According to the ambitious plan, the Mars mission probe is expected to orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover all in one mission, during or close to the year 2021.

The spacecraft intended for the mission which is being developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, will be put into space using the new-generation Long March-5 heavy-lift rocket.

Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of the first Mars exploration, notes the mission’s significance for understanding the universe’s evolution, as well as the structure of matter and the origin of life.

As Zhang told China Plus, “A plan of this kind, which intends to achieve orbiting, landing and the deployment of a rover in one mission will make history. Only by completing this Mars probe mission can China say it has embarked on the exploration of deep space in the truest sense of the term.”

However, Zhang also stressed the difficulties that the country will face in attempting to achieving this goal. Looking to the experiences of others around the globe, Zhang pointed out that, “A total of 43 Mars missions have been launched throughout the world so far.

The most recent took place on March 14. It is a joint collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space

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hree new-generation BeiDou navigation satellites were launched last year, and 98 percent of the components were Chinese made. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has been in operation since 2000, making China the third country with an autonomous sat-nav system after the United States and Russia.

Agency. It’s just been launched and it is still on its way to Mars. There have only been 22 successful launches.

So the rate of success to failure is about 50-50.”

The mission’s greatest challenge apparently lies in the landing process, since the weather conditions on the red planet are hard to predict, and its environment is hard for researchers to imitate on Earth. Experts have also explained that since the favourable alignment of Earth and Mars occurs for only a few weeks every 26 months, 2020 is a crucial launch window for the probe.

Meanwhile, China is also planning to finish building its space station by 2022. The country will launch its second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 as well as the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with the station later this year.

In relation to what goals China hopes to achieve, Xu Dazhe, director of the Chinese National Space Administration, explained that, “China will complete its civil space infrastructure - navigation, telecommunication and remote sensing systems - to serve different sectors, benefit mankind and contribute to the improvement of people’s livelihoods.”

The space station will also cater for international projects and foreign astronauts in a bid to develop further space cooperation with the rest of the world. The first space lab Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011 and three dockings with the module were conducted in the following years.

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the main contractor for the country’s space program, undertakes a number of missions, including the design and manufacturing of key components of BeiDou. In reference to the complexity of the system, Zhang Chuxian, technical director at the institute, explains that, “The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has high-level technology indicators and requires high-standard components. We need to develop better products, more advanced than those imported from abroad, to meet BeiDou’s requirements. What’s more, the development timescale is very tight, almost cut in half compared with before. Within that time we also need to have everything tested and verified. That means we need to develop better products with less time whilst facing an increased number of challenges.”

formance indicators. As Zhang points out, “Within the next five years, or by the end of 2020, China will have launched 30 satellites. Eighteen of them will be launched before 2018 and the remaining 12 before the end of 2020. Finally, we will become a global satellite services supplier, with a high level of position accuracy of two to five meters.”

So far, the BeiDou Navigation System has been widely used in such fields as water and environmental monitoring, command and control, as well as search and rescue. But for Zhang, the possibilities are much greater, and as he told China Plus, it is his wish “to have every car, every cellphone and every ship equipped with the BeiDou navigation system. Even better, if it can replace GPS and serve users directly, my wish is for everyone to enjoy the system.”

In 2014, the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organisation officially approved the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System for use in operations at sea. This approval meant that the system was formally included in the Worldwide Radio Navigation System, and has become the third system to gain such acceptance after the United States’ GPS and Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System.

China began building its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System 20 years after the GPS navigation system designed by the US. The positioning accuracy of the navigation system has been cited as the most common concern by industry experts. However, BeiDou Navigation Satellite deputy chief designer Zhang Lixin says the navigation system is better than GPS in some per-

The lab, which orbited for four and a half years, was retired in March after fulfilling its mission. It will descend gradually in the coming months until it burns up in the earth’s atmosphere. The U.S.-dominated International Space Station is scheduled to end operations in 2024, meaning that China’s space station may for a time become the only operational facility in space.

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ROBOTICS

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CHINA’s ROBOTICS, A THING OF THE FUTURE 20

Making Robotics a Cutting Edge Industry

Last year, China produced just over 30-thousand industrial robots, representing a year-on-year increase of around 20 percent. The Chinese government’s plan would see that figure tripled by 2020 to 100 thousand units. Amidst a surging demand for robots in the service sector, Chinese authorities are prioritising the production of service robots, with sales goals of 4.6 billion US dollars by 2020.

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Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Xin Guobin, says a number of steps will be taken in order achieve those goals, with the first step being the overhaul of all previous planning for the industry, “As well as integrating resources so as to make robotics production more efficient. From there, we will begin pouring in money to help build up the sector.”

side from grand ambitions for its space program, this year China’s central authorities have also laid out a plan to help develop the robotics industry, which the hopes that China will witness a tripling in terms of robotic production over the next 5-years. The plan was jointly issued by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission, and makes up part of the newly established 5-year national economic plan.

The plan itself calls for technological breakthroughs to be made in the development of key robotic components, as well as high-end robots themselves, on top of raising the overall quality and quantity of the robots sold from China to the rest of the world. However, specific details of exactly how this is to be accomplished have not been forthcoming.

In recent years, robots have been introduced to a number of Chinese sectors, including scientific research, healthcare, education, and entertainment. The International Federation of Robotics estimates that China overtook Japan in 2013 to become the world’s largest market for industrial robots.

But despite the growth seen in the robotics sector, director of the China Robot Industry Alliance, Qu Daokui, admits that there is still a lot of work left when it comes to making Chinese robot production more competitive.

According to Qu, “We need to focus on developing core technology, which one day could serve as the brains of the robots. China is trailing behind developed countries in this area when it comes to traditional robots. China still imports most of the core parts it uses, such as electrical machine components, drives, and high-accuracy decelerators. These parts normally account for around 70 percent of the average robot’s production cost. Finally, the high-end market remains marginalised in China.”

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Xin elaborated on his comments, noting that the influx of money, “Will include cash to finance the production of key robot parts and we’re also going to do more to encourage investment in the robotics sector, both in terms of production and services, which may include programs where companies can rent robots, rather than purchasing them outright. We also want to create a market environment conducive to attracting both financial supports and human resources, whilst also working within the international community, not only to create exchanges, but also to increase our global competitiveness.”

The plan has been drafted along the lines of the “Made in China 2025” initiative, which is a 10-year action plan launched by China’s central authorities to transform the country into a leading high-end manufacturing power.

We need to focus on developing core technology, which one could day serve as the brains of the robots.

China is trailing behind developed countries in this area when it comes to traditional robots.

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TECH

RAIL

The Envy of the World: China’s Expanding Railway System

Curbing China’s Biggest Search Engine Giant

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midst its involvement with the development of driverless vehicle technology, tech giant Baidu found itself in the middle of a PR nightmare earlier this year, which led to the Chinese government curbing the search engine giant’s health advertising business after it was found to have compromised its objectivity and impartiality in providing users with search results.

China’s regulators have imposed limits on the number of healthcare adverts carried by Baidu, China’s biggest Internet search engine. The restrictions follow high profile publicity surrounding the death of a student who underwent cancer treatment which he found using the Baidu search engine. It is estimated that such adverts account for up to 30 percent of the company’s search revenue.

Wei Zexi, a 21-year-old college student who died last month of a rare form of cancer, had undergone a clinically unproven treatment at a military hospital in Beijing, the Second Hospital of Armed Police Beijing Corps. The treatment cost Wei’s family around 200,000 yuan and was ultimately unsuccessful. Wei died on April 12.

Before his death, Wei expressed anger at the hospital and search engine Baidu in an online post, accusing them of falsely claiming a high success rate for the treatment. The treatment was a joint project between the hospital and a Shanghai-based private bio-tech company The Cyberspace Administration of China looked into the case and found that Baidu’s search results had influenced Wei’s choice of medical treatment. It also found that Baidu relied excessively on profits from paid listings in search results, and did not clearly label such listings as a commercial promotion, compromising the objectivity and impartiality of search results.

As a result, the company was ordered to clean up in-search healthcare adverts. Furthermore, the positioning of paid-for search adverts of any kind cannot be based only on the highest bidder.

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According to Wang Dalin, chief of the Yinchuan passenger traffic section, this actually represents an extension of services from Yinchuan to Shanghai, because, “Previously, when a train came back to Yinchuan from Shanghai after completing one passenger transport mission, it would rest for 24 hours before starting the next one. But now, after the adjustment, the 24-hour leisure time will be made good use of, meaning the train will head for Ningdong within that period of time.”

A statement from the internet, industry and health regulators stipulate that the number of such adverts must also account for no more than 30 percent of search results on one page. A spokeswoman for Baidu said it accepted the regulator’s decision and that it would implement the requirements placed on it following the investigation.

A new train diagram system, introduced in May this year represents the biggest railway expansion in the past decade for China. In all 300 new trains were added to the network, many of them high speed services. China plans to spend 3.5 trillion yuan in the coming years to boost track construction and improve services generally.

Meanwhile, a number of loop line railways will begin operation in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in north China.

Zhu Dianping, head of the station management section of the Beijing Railway Bureau, notes that, “The new circular railway is similar to a subway line, which runs both clockwise and counter-clockwise in different directions. This offers more choice for passengers who are willing to travel through different prefecture-level towns and cities.”

The company also said it will set aside one billion yuan, or about 150 million US dollars, to compensate verified losses from fraud. According to a report on Xinhua, Baidu also claims that it has reviewed the credentials of all medical institutions featured on its search engine, and pulled back 126 million pieces of information involving 2,518 institutions.

The latest service adjustment will see the number of passenger trains in China grow to 3,400, out of which over 2,100 are high-speed. 100 bullet trains have been scheduled to operate in the mornings and evenings, in a bid to make it more convenient for passengers to go from small and medium-sized cities to bigger ones through the night.

As a result, Zhu believes the expansion within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will be highly significant for both people and the local economies. What’s more, the number of trains designed specifically for tourists has been increased to 69, providing a variety of leisure services to the passengers on board, such as exercise facilities, massage equipment, and even virtual reality movies.

The investigation carried out by the health and military authorities also confirmed wrongdoing by the military hospital in Beijing in the treatment of the young cancer patient. The hospital has been asked to terminate all projects outsourced to medical service providers, including the Shanghai firm. Authorities have also been ordered to review all joint projects between military hospitals and private companies.

Furthermore, 38 railway stations located at county or prefecture level towns have now become departure stations, operating services heading for China’s big cities. Wang Kejian, an official from a departure station in northwest China’s Yulin City in Shaanxi Province, says that the new line linking his city with east China’s Suzhou city in Jiangsu, will be massively convenient for local citizens.

As yet, the changes haven’t had a knock-on effect on the prices of the train tickets, though it is only natural that at some point prices will begin to rise as a result of improved services. China is planning to spend 3.5 trillion yuan in the next five years in an effort to lay more than 30,000 kilometres of new track, with the central and western parts of the country a key component of the plan.

Baidu’s Nasdaq-listed shares fell more than 3 percent following the regulators comments. Analysts estimate that healthcare accounts for 20 to 30 percent of the company’s search revenue. Search revenues represent some 84 percent of the web services firm’s total sales in 2015.

As Wang explained to China Plus, “In the past, if we wanted to travel to Suzhou, we could only take the train linking north China’s Hohhot in Inner Mongolia with Shanghai Municipality, which only had 15 tickets available. The new line offers 1,180 tickets, 340 of which are sleeper tickets. This has greatly alleviated the pressure on us when it comes to buying train tickets, which used to be in short supply.”

Nearly 100 newly added trains link small cities in central and west China with big cities nearby, raising hopes that better connectivity will mean increased prosperity.

This includes new trains running through Yinchuan and Ningdong, the first intercity express linking both cities inside northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

China’s regulators have imposed limits on the number of healthcare adverts carried by Baidu, China’s biggest Internet search engine.

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SCIENCE

ECONOMICS

Is Shenzhen China’s Economic Future?

Whilst the majority of reports related to China’s emerging growth and future centre on Beijing and Shanghai, it would be remiss of this magazine if it failed to mention that China’s economic future is emerging in Shenzhen. The former fishing village turned Special Economic Zone has become the epicentre of China’s manufacturing-driven miracle, staking its future growth on finance, technology and culture. Therefore, this report provides a brief glimpse at the companies who are building the future in Shenzhen.

Stairs present a difficult challenge for most robots, but not for Roveo. Swiss startup Rovenso’s remotely operated rover has been designed for use in disaster zones which may be inaccessible due to contamination or rough terrain. Roveo weighs about 300 kilograms and is 2 meters long, with four wheels whose innovative linkage system allows it to climb over tall obstacles while carrying heavy loads.

Lucian Cucu, co-founder of Rovenso, says the Chinese city of Shenzhen is an ideal place to be for entrepreneurs who want to turn their ideas into actual devices. As Cucu told China Plus, “The advantages of being in Shenzhen, China, or just anywhere in China close to factories is first of all you can get CNC (computer numerical control) parts or any kind of manufactured pieces that you need for the robot extremely quickly.”

As the world’s electronics manufacturing capital, the metropolis is home to some of China’s biggest and hottest companies. Many are led by a new wave of young Chinese entrepreneurs hoping to build global brand recognition. Divided from Hong Kong by a river, Shenzhen was a quiet fishing area of about 300,000 people when former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping designated it the country’s first “special economic zone” in 1979.

Now a sprawling megacity of 11 million people, its fortunes were made churning out cheap clothes, electronics and toys for big foreign brands. But low cost manufacturers like Apple supplier Foxconn have been moving inland or out of China as labor costs increased. Now the city’s focus is on higher value-added, homegrown technology.

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Innovative new companies are attracted by Shenzhen’s well-established manufacturing supply chains and transport links, its proximity to Hong Kong’s banking and financial expertise, and better transport links and milder weather compared to Beijing and Shanghai. And the companies in question are as diverse as the city itself.

Ping pong enthusiasts Harrison and Alexander Chen’s table tennis training machine, Trainerbot, is about the size of a large pineapple and can be programmed via smartphone to fire balls at specific areas and give them certain spins. The brothers, raised in Taiwan, managed to build two prototypes a week in Shenzhen, thanks to the city’s vast electronics markets and 3D printing services.

Another Shenzhen based start-up promises to revolutionise what we eat by allowing food lovers to grow their own insects at home with a desktop hive, and then eat them. Livin Farms’ Austrian founder Katharina Unger says mealworms are a healthy, sustainable alternative to modern, industrialised food production. As Unger explains of this peculiar new foodstuff, “We love them roasted and just crispy like a snack with some salt or some barbecue spicing but you can also grind them up and bake cookies with it or muffins or even bread or tortillas. You can treat them as minced meat, that’s another way. So you can make a pasta sauce with it for example. Or you can grind them up and make them into a burger patty or dumplings.”

A WARNING FOR CHINA’S SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY In May, during this year’s Beijing International High-Tech Expo, one of the major players in China’s scientific community stepped up to address his concerns about the way science and research is being approached in China. Shi Yigong, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and also the vice-president of China’s prestigious Tsinghua University, delivered the keynote speech at this year’s Symposium at the High-Tech Expo. But instead of focussing on the minutia of Chinese research in the Life Sciences, Shi’s particular area of expertise, the vice-president of China’s most prestigious institution of higher education used the opportunity to question the way science and academic research is approached in China.

The company exceeded its 100,000 dollar crowdfunding goal by half as much again, after a session last autumn with Hax, an “accelerator” for hardware startups. Hax, which was founded five years ago in Shenzhen, brings groups of startups to the area, gives them funding, technical help, and introduces them to the countless component suppliers and factories in and around the city in order to speed up prototype development. With the conditions that Shenzhen offers, plus with the addition of innovative companies like Hax, industrial experts are confident that in the years ahead the tech sector in Shenzhen will continue to grow and thrive, helping to bring China’s innovations to the wider world.

During his speech, Shi Yigong claimed that it is only through questioning the status-quo that researchers can make advances. To a packed audience, Shi stated, “I’m sorry to say, but principle has never been like the minority obeying the majority. It’s to the contrary. In any scientific field, it’s always been that certain people end up being right and the majority ends up being wrong. This is why democratic principles aren’t applicable in scientific discovery. Which industry, which field should be supported? It cannot be decided on by votes. Otherwise, who would select the jury? And who should be on that jury?”

In taking his stand, Shi Yigong called on the government to scrap the way that Chinese scientists are currently evaluated, which is known as the Academic Title Evaluation. As Shi explained, “Right now there is an over-dependence on the number of published papers. Our scientists need to tell the government the evaluation system should be changed. It needs to advance with the times. Otherwise, it’s going to hold-back scientific development in the future.”

Low cost manufacturers like Apple supplier Foxconn have been moving inland or out of China as labor costs increased. Now the city’s focus is on higher value-added, homegrown technology.

Shi delivered his speech in front of a number of major players in both the Chinese and International tech world. Members of the World Health Organisation, UNESCO, as well as delegations from 34 countries and more than 30 provinces and municipalities in China attended this year’s gathering. Some 1,500 high tech companies also took part in the event.

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China Plus, a member of China Radio International, is a comprehensive provider of news and information, covering a number of different platforms including print, radio and digital media.

China Plus strives for quality and clarity as part of its in-depth reporting of Chinarelated news, as such news relates to Chinese people and to the wider world.

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