China is now advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through Chinese modernization, and China's high-quality development and opening-up will provide more opportunities for Hungary, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday.
Xi made the remarks at a farewell event held here by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his wife.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock's ongoing visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji in the South Pacific is a way of balancing the impact of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's China trip, which exposed deep political divisions within the German government, said Chinese analysts when commenting on Baerbock's recent remarks in which she warned against becoming too reliant on China.
While Scholz recently visited China and reached many positive agreements, Germany's foreign and economic departments, controlled by the far-right Greens, have been at odds with the Social Democratic Party led by Scholz, especially on China policy, which could affect China-Germany cooperation and hinder Germany's own economic and social recovery, analysts warned. At the same time, they believe sustainable cooperation remains the dominant factor in China-Germany relations.
According to a report by the German Press Agency (DPA), Baerbock is setting off on a week-long visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, and is using the trip to send a message to China, the report said.
During her visit to Australia, which was her first to the country, Baerbock said Germany has overhauled its strategic approach to China to avoid a repeat of the past when the NATO member failed to realize the extent of its economic dependence on Russia, Australian media outlet ABC reported on Sunday.
Baerbock, who is a Greens politician within Chancellor Scholz's coalition, said Germany has now developed a comprehensive China policy to diversify its supply chains, while maintaining a strong trade relationship with Beijing, ABC reported.
Baerbock set off on the South Pacific trip just weeks after Scholz concluded his China trip in April. Analysts said Scholz's "high-profile" visit to China was a return to the normalcy of bilateral relations.
It is clear that Baerbock rushed to visit the South Pacific in order to strike a "diplomatic balance" on China policy, Liu Zuokui, a research fellow on European studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.
Now, more and more people and corporations in the international community are increasingly focusing on and optimistic about China's market and economic potential, a sentiment shared by Scholz, who aims to lead Germany in developing close cooperation with China, Liu said.
However, Baerbock and her far-right party are heavily biased in ideology, prioritizing values and security risks over economic cooperation, conflicting with Scholz's advocacy for pragmatic cooperation with China, Liu noted.
As a result, cooperation between Germany and China could face various disruptions, something that is supported and welcomed by the US, Liu warned. He noted that the German federal elections next year will be crucial in determining whether the German government can effectively manage these internal political struggles and contradictions.
"However, we believe that the closeness of business and economic cooperation will always remain the mainstream in China-Germany relations," Liu stressed.
Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe for 49 consecutive years, while China has been Germany's largest global trading partner for eight consecutive years. The facts show that practical cooperation is not just an option, but a necessity.
Also during Baerbock's visit to New Zealand on Saturday, the foreign minister did not rule out the possibility of a German frigate crossing the Taiwan Straits, DPA reported.
According to DPA, German frigate Baden-Württemberg and a supply ship will set off on Tuesday on a training mission to the Pacific lasting several months. The vessels will enter the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal and later also cross the South China Sea.
In 2021, German frigate Bayern took part in maneuvers with allies at the time, but avoided Taiwan during its voyage to the Pacific, DPA reported.
If the German frigate crosses the Taiwan Straits, it would be a very dangerous and irrational move for China-Germany relations, Chinese analysts warned. They said hyping the Taiwan question will not bring any benefits to Germany, but will only disrupt the normal development of its ties with China and affect Germany's national interests.
Politicians like Baerbock are trying to gain domestic votes by hyping up the Taiwan question, as those politicians' considerations are more focused on personal and party interests rather than their country's interests, Liu believes.
If German frigates were to cross the Taiwan Straits, China would likely respond resolutely and forcefully, Liu said.
The return capsule of the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, carrying taikonauts Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, touched down at the Dongfeng landing site in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Tuesday, following six months aboard the Tiangong space station.
The three astronauts are all in good health condition, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), the Xinhua News Agency reported. China announced that the Shenzhou-17 mission was a complete success.
The Shenzhou-17 mission was launched on October 25, 2023, taking over control of Tiangong from the outgoing Shenzhou-16 crew days later. The crew departed the station at 8:43 am on Tuesday and landed at Dongfeng landing site at 17:46 pm.
Recovery crews were on the scene moments after the return capsule touched down. Mission commander Tang Hongbo was the first out of the capsule. In front of the camera of China Central Television, Tang expressed that he is very proud for the country. “I departed in autumn and came back in spring. My mood is just the like current days in April, the most beautiful season of a year,” Tang said.
Tang, who had first flown to space in the Shenzhou-12 mission in 2021 and then in the Shenzhou-17 mission, has not only become the taikonaut with the longest space flight time to date, but also the one with the shortest interval between two flight missions.
“Such an experience accumulated valuable lessons for us in the routine implementation of flight crew rotation and training,” CMSA spokesperson Lin Xiqiang said.
Shenzhou-17 is the second mission after Tiangong space station entered the application phase.
Prior to Shenzhou-17’s journey, research team had discovered damage on the solar wing cables of the station’s Tianhe core module due to space debris impact, resulting in partial power loss.
To fix the damage, the Shenzhou-17 crew brought repair tools with them to the space station, and through two extravehicular activities, they managed to complete China’s first extravehicular repair task, eliminating the impact on the core module's solar wings, the Global Times learned from the CMSA.
“This fully demonstrated the role of humans in space and showed that human care of spacecraft can better address unexpected issues in orbit,” Lin said.
Over the past few decades, especially in recent years, the rapid increase of human space activities has led to a growing concern over the issue of space debris. Up recently, the Chinese space station has actively implemented space debris avoidance measures on multiple occasions.
To cope with the challenge, China has improved its precise forecasting capabilities for the space station, optimizing space collision warning and reducing false alarm rates by 30 percent. China has also been conducting high-resolution inspection of the external status of Tiangong to analyze the probability and mechanics of small debris impacts.
The Shenzhou-18 crew who has just arrived at their space home on Friday will carry out reinforcement measures with protective devices to apply on the weak points on the exterior of the space station.
Lin noted that a space station impact leak monitoring and positioning system has also been deployed, improving emergency pressure response plans and increasing the time available for fault handling by five times.
The CMSA has been publishing OEM orbit parameters on their website, so as to establish a flight safety communication mechanism with other spacefaring countries, timely exchange and sharing of relevant information, with the aim of jointly maintaining the safety of spacecraft in orbit.
Apart from impact repair tasks, the Shenzhou-17 crew has conducted a total of 84 space application experiments, producing over 60 types of more than 200 samples in various fields such as space life sciences and biotechnology, aerospace medicine, and space materials science.
These samples will be brought back to Earth along with the Shenzhou-17 spacecraft for in-depth analysis and research. The samples are expected to achieve a number of important research results in areas such as high-performance multi-element alloys, functional crystal material preparation, and inhibiting bone loss through the differentiation of stem cells.
China stands ready to strengthen high-level exchanges with France, give play to the leading role of head-of-state diplomacy, and add new connotations to the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, said China's top diplomat Wang Yi on Saturday, amid rising high-level contacts between China and France in the past few months.
Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks in a telephone call with the French President's Diplomatic Counselor Emmanuel Bonne on Saturday, reiterating China's willingness to push bilateral cooperation with France in various fields to a new level, and give play to the important role of the two major countries in dealing with global challenges, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Noting that the current international situation is complex and volatile, with numerous challenges and hot spots emerging one after another, Wang said the international community expects China and France to form a common position and speak with the same voice on major issues bearing on world peace and stability, as well as the future and destiny of mankind.
It is hoped that the French side will push the EU to continue to pursue a positive and pragmatic policy toward China, Wang noted.
At a time when some European politicians are mistakenly advocating "decoupling" from China, the frequent interactions between China and France is a highlight and a stabilizer, Chinese experts noted. The connection between the two countries is also very important for advancing the resolution of international hot-button issues.
The year 2024 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France. In the past few months, it is evident that China and France have increased their interactions, exchanges and communication in various fields, Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Against a backdrop of rising uncertainties in China-Europe relations as some European politicians advocate "decoupling," the relationship between China and France is not only a highlight but also plays an important role in stabilizing China-Europe relations, he noted.
France is willing to use the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries as an opportunity to intensify high-level exchanges, deepen mutual trust, strengthen practical cooperation and strive for mutual benefit and win-win results, Bonne told Wang in the phone call.
The two sides should work together to cool down hot spot issues, cope with global challenges including climate change, make positive contributions to narrowing the North-South gap and rejecting bloc confrontation, and push for further development of France-China and Europe-China relations, he said.
Zhao noted that the China-France relationship has always been important for both countries throughout history, and it is crucial to make good use of the 60th anniversary celebrations as an opportunity to strengthen political interactions between the two countries.
The French government has always advocated that Europe's strategic autonomy and independence in their relationship with China is important for them, analysts said. While some major Western countries opt to blindly follow the US in pressuring China, it is time that France can demonstrate its rational great power characteristics through its actions, they said.
In the past few months, the warming of China-France relations has not only been reflected in high-level official exchanges. In the military and commercial fields, news of cooperation between the two sides has been frequent.
On Thursday, the Chinese and French militaries signed a framework document on the establishment of a maritime and aerial cooperation and dialogue mechanism between the two militaries' theaters, to help further deepen mutual trust and cooperation between the two militaries and jointly safeguard regional security and stability.
In the meantime, France's Airbus is in talks with China over a potentially major aircraft order which could involve hundreds of jets, Reuters reported.
During the Saturday call, the two sides also discussed business cooperation, having agreed to cooperate on the development of artificial intelligence, continue to strengthen coordination on tackling climate change, and further refine the successful practice of "from French farm to Chinese dinner table," so as to provide a good environment for enterprises of both sides to invest and do business in each other's countries, the Xinhua reported.
Observers emphasized that maintaining a stable relationship between the two major powers is helpful in addressing international concerns in the current turbulent global situation, which was also part of the discussions on Saturday, when the two sides also coordinated on international and regional issues of common concern such as the Ukraine issue and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
After Brexit, the UK's influence in Europe has clearly declined, while Russia is currently being suppressed by the West, which makes China and France's communications more important in the international sphere, Zhao told the Global Times.
"China and France always have a traditional and solid foundation for cooperation, and now it has a broader vision," he said. "The China-France relations can set an example for other European countries."
China urges some British politicians to end their belligerent rhetoric, cease wanton accusations against China, stop stoking bloc confrontation, and instead, focus more on domestic economic and social issues, and act in a way that is truly in the interests of world peace and justice, the Chinese Embassy in the UK said on Wednesday night, in response to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's listing of China as an authoritarian state and criticizing the China-Russia relationship.
Chinese experts said Sunak's hype aims to win support for his administration to increase military spending. In order to achieve this, he hypes geopolitical conflicts, presenting so-called external challenges, said experts.
Sunak said the UK's increase in military spending "is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defense of the United Kingdom." Speaking at the base of the Warsaw Armoured Brigade in Poland, he addressed a regiment of the Queen's Dragoon Guards: "I want to talk to you about how we equip you to do your duty in an increasingly dangerous world," with Britain and NATO confronting an "axis of authoritarian states," said Sunak, naming Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China.
The UK politician was trying to look for excuses to ramp up the UK's military spending through his unwarranted accusation and malicious slander against China, said a spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK on Wednesday, noting that China firmly rejects his Cold War rhetoric that incites antagonism and confrontation.
"China is a peace-loving country, and has all along stood on the side of peace and justice," said the spokesperson in response to Sunak's accusation. "We have always promoted peace talks and sought peaceful settlement of international conflicts, we have contributed more than one-third of global economic growth for many years running, and we are a force for international cooperation and stability in the world. These are indisputable facts."
Cui Hongjian, a professor with the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday that Sunak's attack on China in his speech is mainly for "clout-chasing."
"Because of the numerous issues both domestically and internationally that the UK faces, Sunak is worried about the country's status as a major power," Cui said. "As a result, he is eager to make a statement on China-related issues, as only through this can he demonstrate his supposed political stance."
At the same time, the issue of military spending is also a reason for Sunak's hype. In order to enhance the UK's competitiveness, he must hype geopolitical conflicts, presenting so-called external challenges, including China and Russia as his targets, Cui noted.
As pointed out by the Embassy spokesperson, in contrast to China, the current UK government seems to be stirring up troubles and heightening tensions around the world.
On Ukraine, it has been providing offensive weapons to one side of the conflict, adding fuel to the fire. On the Gaza issue, it has repeatedly opposed resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire at the United Nations Security Council. It shows no support for Palestine's application for full UN membership and continues to supply weapons to Israel. Now, the UK lacks morality and has no sense of responsibility when it comes to matters of international peace and justice, the embassy said in the statement.
Regarding Sunak's comments, China has urged British politicians to end their belligerent rhetoric, cease wanton accusations against China, stop stoking bloc confrontation, and instead, focus more on domestic economic and social issues, and act in a way that is truly in the interests of world peace and justice.
Observers also noted that as relations between China and Europe improve and both sides strengthen high-level exchanges, British politicians who are hyping up anti-China rhetoric are more likely to harm the interests of the UK itself.
"At present, China-Europe relations are on a positive track," Cui noted. "If speculative hyping remarks are allowed to ferment and affect a wider range of China-EU relations, it could in turn serve to help anti-China Western politicians achieve their goals."
The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) has added Nicaragua, the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization, and the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences as collaborating countries and organizations, GT learned from the Space Day of China 2024 opening ceremony on Wednesday.
China will cooperate with these three parties in various aspects such as engineering implementation, operation, and application of the ILRS. According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA)'s ILRS Partnership Guidelines, the ILRS aims for peaceful use, equality and mutual benefit, and common development. Through joint construction with multiple countries, the ILRS will establish a comprehensive scientific experiment facility on the lunar surface and in lunar orbit, capable of long-term autonomous operation, short-term human involvement, expandability, and maintainability.
The M503 flight path's connecting routes of W122 and W123 from west to east have been activated starting Friday, a move that safeguards the rights and interests of passengers and is beneficial for people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council said on Friday.
The so-called security threat posed by the flight route alteration is, as always, a malicious hype by the Taiwan regional authorities to create an illusion that the mainland is "squeezing its space," which fundamentally serves the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s own selfish scheme at the cost of the interests of its people.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) made the announcement early Friday. It also said that the airspace for arrivals and departures at Fuzhou Changle Airport in East China's Fujian Province will be further optimized starting from May 16.
The eastbound W122 and W123 link M503 with the mainland cities of Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian, close to Taiwan's Kinmen and Matsu islands.
Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office, said the decision is aimed at relieving the pressure on the growth in flight numbers across the immediate regions, ensuring flight safety, reducing flight delays, and safeguarding the rights and interests of passengers, which benefits both sides of the Straits.
The M503 route is located within the Shanghai Flight Information Region, and the establishment and operation of this route is a routine task of the mainland's civil aviation airspace management, Zhu noted.
Since the cancellation of the flight offset measure for the M503 route, overall operation safety has been stable, effectively improving cross-Straits flight operations, and further facilitating personnel exchanges between the two sides, the spokesperson added.
"The air route modification is fully compliant with international civil aviation regulations, aimed at alleviating airspace congestion. It is not only beneficial for personnel exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan, but also facilitates the smooth and safe passage of international flights," Ni Yongjie, director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, told the Global Times on Friday.
Zhang Wensheng, deputy dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University, added that the changes can significantly reduce travel time, while allowing airlines to save costs.
However, the island's department for mainland affairs protested that such "unilateral activation" of the connecting routes would have a "great impact on the flight safety of Kinmen and Matsu," according to department spokesperson Chien Chih-hung.
Chien claimed that previous flights operated in a westward direction, and the eastbound flights would "affect Taiwan's existing air routes, raising great concerns about flight safety risks."
"It [The route] is not for fighter jets, so what kind of danger are we talking about? Civilian aircraft do not have attack capabilities, so where is the safety risk coming from?" Li Fei, a professor at the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University, shrugged off this "concern."
Li noted that as long as both sides act in good faith and remain in close communication, there is no need for concerns for flight safety.
DPP authorities have been hyping the move as "a deliberate attempt" by the mainland to use civil aviation as a cover for political, and possibly military intentions, aimed at altering the status quo in the Taiwan Straits, which poses a threat to Taiwan's airspace defense.
Ni rebutted the claim as "completely ungrounded," noting that the purpose of the hyping is to stir up cross-Straits relations, inciting hatred between the two sides, and further aligning with the US' strategy of containing China.
"Even if there were security threats, it would be the DPP authorities digging their own graves by promoting 'Taiwan independence,'" Ni added.
The analysts further added that this is the DPP's typical way to smear the normal and legitimate actions taken by the mainland, creating a narrative of the mainland "squeezing their space" in order to manipulate public opinion and gain sympathy and support from the West.
"The fact is however, it is always for the benefit of the DPP's own selfish schemes, rather than considering the interests of compatriots on both sides of the Straits and the actual interests of Taiwan," Ni noted.
The CAAC said on Wednesday that this optimization of airspace in Fujian and the adjustment of the M503's connecting routes will facilitate the development of air transport between the Yangtze River Delta region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as China's southeastern coastal regions.
It will improve operational conditions and ensure flight safety, while further enhance the capacity to cope with thunderstorm seasons, improve flight punctuality, and better serve passenger travel needs, according to the administration.
China announced on January 30 that starting from February 1, the deviation of the M503 flight route from north to south will be canceled, a change which the Taiwan authorities interpreted would see southbound aircraft flight paths above the Taiwan Straits come closer to Taiwan's self-claimed "median line," "flight information region," and "air defense identification zone."
China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) revealed on Tuesday that four minors aged between 12 and 14 had been sentenced to 10 to 15 years recently. It came after a brutal bullying and murder case involving three 13-year-old suspects that drew public attention toward juvenile crime. The SPC also revealed an increase in juvenile crimes in recent years, with nearly 100,000 such cases reported in the last three years.
Recently, the debate about holding minors aged 12 to 14 criminally responsible for murder and serious crimes has attracted widespread attention. The SPC said that a total of four cases involving minors aged 12 to 14 have been concluded recently, with four individuals sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison in accordance with the law.
On March 10, three suspects aged 13 were detained for suspected bullying and murder in Handan, North China's Hebei Province. The three suspects are all left-behind children, and the case triggered wide public discussion of juvenile crimes.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate has reviewed and approved the prosecution of the three juvenile suspects, media reports said on April 8.
As the prevention of juvenile crime has become a major concern among the general public following several high-profile cases, the SPC emphasized that dealing with juvenile crime should not only involve punitive measures, but also education and rehabilitation.
Besides investigating the problem of juvenile delinquency at its source, it is also important to provide proper protection and guidance to minors, and to provide integrated criminal, civil and administrative protection.
According to the statement issued by the SPC on Monday, the situation of juvenile delinquency remains severe, and the issue of campus violence cannot be ignored. In the past three years, the number of juvenile delinquency cases has been on the rise. From 2021 to 2023, the people's courts concluded a total of 73,178 juvenile crime cases and sentenced 98,426 juvenile offenders, accounting for 2 percent to 2.5 percent of all criminal offenders during the same period.
The SPC said that sexual assault, harmful information on the internet and lack of family supervision are key factors in the rise of juvenile delinquency. The SPC said judges should remind parents who get divorced of their legal obligations to their children and warn them of the consequences of violating related laws, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
Several Chinese social media platforms including Sina Weibo, WeChat and Douyin have banned an internet influencer's account for fabricating a false video claiming to have found a student's lost booklets of homework in Paris, which has seriously "damaged the online ecosystem and wasted public resources."
ThurmanMaoyibei, the 29-year-old female internet influencer surnamed Xu, is from Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, and has more than 10 million followers. On February 16, she posted videos related to "finding a first-grade student named Qin Lang's winter vacation homework in Paris" on social media platforms, quickly attracting widespread attention online.
The next day, a person surnamed Yang from Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province, impersonated "Qin Lang's uncle" in the video's comment section to attract more attention and spread rumors, triggering a nationwide search for "Qin Lang." On February 19, Xu once again posted a video claiming to have "contacted Qin Lang's mother."
Following an investigation, the police in Hangzhou found that Xu and her 30-year-old colleague, surnamed Xue, had fabricated a series of videos and purchased winter vacation homework books online, to attract viewers, which has caused bad impact. The Hangzhou public security authorities have imposed administrative penalties on the two individuals, and the company involved.
It was found that there were no primary school students at a similar age to "Qin Lang" had left China, which strengthened our confidence that the video in question was spreading false information, according to Zhao Zhichao, a police officer from Hangzhou, the China Central Television reported.
The Cyberspace Administration of China released a notice in July 2023 strengthening the regulation of "self-media," specifying 13 key tasks to address the main complaints of rumors, false information, and other items.
The notice rules that social media platforms should require content containing fictional plots or dramatic interpretations to be clearly "marked with a label indicating fiction or dramatization," Zhu Wei, a vice director of the Communication Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Sunday.
When it came to the case of "Qin Lang," the public didn't know the content was fictional. The blogger who obtained more viewers through illegal means, including not informing users about released videos containing fictional plots, which can result in account suspension, loss of followers and even a permanent ban. Social media platforms may also be held responsibilities for removing any additional fans gained through illegal means, Zhu said.
Xu later apologized via a video and expressed her regret for fabricating and uploading the videos due to her lack of legal awareness.
The topic also gained more than 290 million views via Weibo, with many netizens calling for cleaning up the internet space and the penalties should be given to those who violate the regulations and laws.
"Gaining more viewers online must have minimum standards, and the penalty [in this case] is reasonable," one netizen wrote.
"In addition to strict supervision, social platforms should take on the role of being the primary responsible party for managing internet influencer content," another netizen wrote.
The Ministry of Public Security on Friday disclosed 10 cases, including the case of "Qin Lang lost his winter vocation homework in Paris," which was handled by public security organs in East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
The incident gained a significant amount of public attention and will continue to impact the internet influencer's reputation. She created drama to gain attention and failed to clarify that this content was fabricated, disrupting online public opinion. This incident greatly "disrupted the online public opinion ecosystem" and should be "severely punished," the All-China Journalists Association wrote in an article published on Saturday.
This is not the first time that false content went mainstream. Xu has apologized for her actions, but the association reminded in the article that others need to reflect as well, such as the public, including social media platforms and the media, to reflect on their management systems.
The reactor shell of Russia's Brest-OD-300 lead-cooled fast reactor in Seversk is nearing completion, nuclear technical journal Nuclear Engineering International reported on Tuesday, citing general contractor Titan-2.
The Brest-OD-300 is under construction at the Siberian Chemical Plant (SCC part of the Rosatom fuel company TVEL) as part of the pilot demonstration power complex ODEK - Opitno Demonstratsionovo Energo-Kompleksa, which is part of the Breakthrough (Proryv) project intended to demonstrate closed fuel cycle technology, according to the report.
About two months before, the magazine also reported that the world's largest multi-purpose sodium-cooled fast neutron research reactor, a 150-megawatt facility, MBIR (Mnogotselevoi Bistrii Issledovatelskii Reaktor), is also expected to start actual operation in 2027. The move will allow Russia to make a major leap in nuclear research.
Since their birth in 1960, fast reactors have been attracting increasing attention around the world because they can provide efficient, safe, and sustainable energy. The closed fuel cycle of fast reactors can support the long-term development of the nuclear power as part of the world's future energy structure and reduce the burden of nuclear waste. Thus, the fast reactor has become one of the development directions of global fourth-generation nuclear power.
As an intermediate link in China's "three-step" nuclear power technology roadmap of "thermal neutron reactor - fast reactor - controlled nuclear fusion reactor," the development of fast reactors has always attracted industry attention. China's first sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor, the China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR), located at the Beijing-based China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), under the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), is the cornerstone of China's fast reactor technology development.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, sodium-cooled fast reactors are the most mature fast reactor technology, with over 400 cumulative reactor-years of experience gained through the design, construction, operation, and decommissioning of experimental, prototype, demonstration, and commercial reactors in multiple countries including China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US.
"The fourth-generation nuclear energy system demonstrates a new stage of nuclear energy development with its comprehensive advantages. By establishing a fast reactor nuclear energy system and implementing a closed fuel cycle, uranium resource recycling can be achieved, increasing the utilization rate of uranium resources from less than 1 percent to around 60 percent, and the development of nuclear fission energy is expected to extend from a hundred-year time scale to a thousand-year time scale," Zhou Peide, deputy chief engineer at the China Institute of Atomic Energy and chief designer of China's integrated fast reactor project, told the Global Times during a recent media group visit to the CIAE.
The "thermal neutron reactor - fast reactor - controlled nuclear fusion reactor" strategy was first proposed in 1983 in order to solve the problems associated with the sustainable development of nuclear energy and the long-term safe and effective supply of nuclear fuel in China.
After decades of development, China's thermal reactor technology is becoming increasingly mature, with thermal neutron reactors accounting for over 90 percent of nuclear power generation. Compared to thermal reactor technology, fast reactor nuclear energy systems have advantages such as a high uranium resource utilization rate, a high inherent safety of reactors, and the minimization of high-level waste.
According to Zhou, most third-generation nuclear power reactors are pressurized water reactors, which belong to the category of thermal neutron reactors. The main material used in these reactors is uranium-235, which accounts for only about 0.7 percent of natural uranium in nature. In comparison, fast reactors can fully utilize uranium-238, which accounts for as much as 99.3 percent of natural uranium, increasing the utilization rate of natural uranium to more than 60.
In terms of safety, the working pressure inside the fast reactor vessel is slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, belonging to a low-pressure system with the working temperature of the coolant being more than 300 degrees lower than the boiling point. At the same time, the inherent safety of the reactor is high, and non-energy systems can be used to remove the residual heat of the reactor during an accident.
A complete fast reactor nuclear energy system consists of fast reactor power plants, fast reactor fuel manufacturing plants, fast reactor spent fuel reprocessing facilities, and other parts.
By placing the fast reactor, fuel recycling items (including spent fuel reprocessing and new fuel manufacturing), and other supporting items at the same site, an integrated nuclear energy system with self-sustaining fuel circulation and rapid circulation within the plant will be formed.
According to calculations by the China Nuclear Energy Industry Association, by 2060, China's nuclear power installed capacity needs to reach 400 million kilowatts.
"Taking both safety and uranium supply into account, continuing to build pressurized water reactors at an installed capacity of 200 million kilowatts and then transitioning to integrated fast reactors will be a feasible technological approach to achieving the goal of nearly 400 million kilowatts of total installed nuclear fission energy by 2060," Zhou stressed.
However, the construction of integrated fast reactors still faces a long and arduous road. Integrated fast reactors still need to break through key technologies such as advanced reactors, advanced fuels, and advanced reprocessing, requiring significant innovation in engineering and technology, he noted.