1196 524 Qubits!

Fortunately, the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion technology from a few years ago provided a solid foundation. The expansion of cross-regional power grids in Southeast Asia convinced the a.s.sociation of Southeast Asian Nations to jump on the “unbreakable optical cable bandwagon”.

Of course, even though China had established a foundation for advancing their global optical cable system, the road ahead was by no means smooth.

Due to the refusal of cooperation from the United States, the submarine optical fiber cable project that was originally scheduled to start from Shanghai and end in Los Angeles was forced to change its laying route. Panama City was going to replace Los Angeles and become the Trans-Pacific hub of America’s global submarine optical cable.

Despite the decision to bypa.s.s the North American territorial waters, the bandwidth of the new submarine optical cable was still held up to the Asia-Pacific No.2 submarine optical cable standards.

Obviously, the Trans-Pacific Submarine Optical Cable Committee was not going to “abandon” the United States.

Even if they didn’t want to jump on the hype train, China still reserved them seats on the bandwagon.

However, the longer they waited, the more they would have to pay to get on the bandwagon…

…

During the week after the announcement of the bidding wars.

Only one bid was sent to the Trans-Pacific Submarine Optical Cable Committee.

There was hardly any suspense. East Asia Communications defeated their non-existent compet.i.tors and easily won the bidding wars.

SubCom, who was pus.h.i.+ng hard for the No.3 Asia-Pacific submarine optical cable project, began to raise some doubts. During a public interview with CNN, their CEO Markati publicly stated in an interview that he believed the bidding war was rigged and declared that quantum communication was just a cover for the scheme.

“… I admit that the current network information security industry is facing serious challenges, but it is far from the extent that the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is claiming.

“Yes, in theory, quantum communication technology can achieve unbreakable confidentiality. Combining quantum communication channels with traditional channels can also increase transmission speed. So why am I doubting this?

“There are so many ways to ensure the security of communication in this world, yet they chose the most troublesome and costly option. Regardless of whether they really have a working quantum repeater, which by the way, has troubled top research inst.i.tutions all over the world, even if they did, I don’t think this is the right decision.”

After listening carefully to Markati’s words, the host asked, “Then why do you think the Chinese are doing this?”

“This is a kind of political play.”

Markati spoke in a serious tone.

“They create panic, spread panic, and use the panic to achieve their ulterior goals, such as… establis.h.i.+ng a network that only serves them, putting limitations on other countries.”

Host: “This sounds familiar.”

“Yeah, this is almost like an act of terrorism!” Markati angrily slapped his knees. He quickly realized his behavior was out of line, so he said, “Sorry, cut that off the tape.”

“Sure, Mr. Markati.” The host nodded to the studio cameraman. He then looked at Markati and asked with a smile, “Other than limiting other countries and gaining control of the Internet… Are there any other reasons?”

Markati spoke without hesitation.

“Of course there are. Those are long-term goals. The most critical role of this submarine optical cable is to set a false threshold for compet.i.tion in the submarine optical cable market, to make other communication companies and taxpayers in other countries pay for an undeveloped technology!”

The CNN interview caused a huge response on the Internet.

Especially in the industry.

Almost no one was optimistic about this submarine optical cable that was going to be built by China. No one believed in the quantum communication technology from East Asia Communications.

This was understandable. After all, more than 90% of the market share was in the hands of SubCom, NEC, and Alcatel-Lucent. The vast majority of scholars and research inst.i.tutions in this field were more or less receiving funding from these three companies.

There was no reason for any research inst.i.tute to be on the side of East Asia Communications.

Not to mention that the quantum optical cable technology from East Asia Communications could make them lose their jobs…

However, even though most people were not optimistic about the quantum communication technology from East Asia Communications, this pessimism did not impact the progression of the Trans-Pacific optical cable project.

In fact, other than a few US allies, most countries in the Asia-Pacific region had no opinion on this issue. Since China was willing to pay the bill, they were more than happy to use this new communication method.

As for confidentiality…

To be honest, these small countries had no secrets that were worthy of keeping.

Countries involved in the fusion power grids had a more unique stance on this matter. Since China expressed their willingness to bear most of the optical cable laying costs, communications companies in Southeast Asia didn’t even hesitate before jumping on the bandwagon.

After all, it was easier to make a deal with old customers than to recruit new customers.

Especially since they had already enjoyed the benefits of technological dividends from China’s controllable fusion power, they had no reason to refuse.

If China wanted to help them upgrade their communications industry…

Then why not.

It was much less troublesome than developing the technology themselves.

No one paid any attention to SubCom’s complaints, and everything was proceeding as scheduled.

Even if an official North American research inst.i.tute continued to publish reports questioning the safety and reliability of this communication method, it would not have any impact on the entire project.

On the other hand, after more than a month of adjustments, the quantum encryption algorithm developed by the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced study had finally modified the RAS algorithm, which was common in the financial and communications industries.

The upgraded encryption algorithm would be able to resist a brute-force cracking of a 2,000-qubit quantum computer. It was theoretically the most advanced encryption algorithm in the world.

Seeing how China was fully invested in this algorithm, other countries that were still on the fence, as well as international financial inst.i.tutions, had finally begun to jump on the bandwagon.

After all, if this algorithm had serious security risks, China would never promote it as a nationwide encryption algorithm. Any mistake in this area would have serious consequences. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that it could cause an economic crisis…

The 20th Asia-Pacific Cyber Information Security Summit hosted by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was about to be held soon. It was expected that China would present this algorithm at the summit. Research inst.i.tutions in various countries were beginning to take this seriously, and they began to research if this algorithm could actually withstand an attack from a 2,000-qubit computer…

Time quickly pa.s.sed by.

Finally, the day before the 20th Asia-Pacific Cyber Information Security Summit.

Representatives from Asia-Pacific countries were preparing to fly to Shanghai for the summit. On the other hand, a major event happened in the semiconductor industry.

Everything came so suddenly…

The main issue of “Future” suddenly published a summary paper. This paper presented the latest research results from the Jinling Inst.i.tute for Advanced Study—a 524-qubit supercomputer based on carbon-based processor technology.

The author of the paper was…

Lu Zhou.

The second this Future paper was published…

The entire world went crazy!