Tag Archives: China

Chinese Finance Minister Xiao Jie Tuesday shrugged off concerns over China’s military transparency, saying there was no opacity in the country’s defense budget. “Let me be very clear, there is no such thing as opacity in China’s military spending,” Xi… read more

China will develop a new generation of rockets launched from aircraft that can put satellites into space, according to Li Tongyu, the head of carrier rocket development at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. Air-launched rockets can rapidl… read more

A tourist practices Yoga on the bank of Qinghai Lake as a shepherd watches in Qinghai province in October.[Photo/Xinhua]

The water level of China’s largest inland saltwater lake has risen over the past decade due to abundant rainfall and rising temperatures, according to a recent survey.

The average annual water level at Qinghai Lake’s hydrological station in Northwest China’s Qinghai province rose 1.66 meters over the past 10 years.

The rising water level is the result of increased precipitation and meltwater from nearby glaciers and highland snow, according to Dai Sheng, an engineer with the provincial climate center.

Average annual precipitation increased to 421.8 millimeters between 2005 and last year, from 358.8 millimeters between 1961 and 2004, Dai said, adding that an improved ecosystem and vegetation also helped maintain water in the Qinghai Lake basin.

The surface area of Qinghai Lake also expanded to 4,429.3 square kilometers in September, an increase of 169.7 sq km from the same period in 2004, according to a geographical survey in the province.

Qinghai Lake plays an important role in the ecological security of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The lake had been shrinking since the 1950s, but the combined effects of conservation and changes in the regional climate helped turn things around from 2005 onward.

The Mila Mount Tunnel on the Lhasa-Nyingchi Highway is expected to be opened in September, when it will become the world’s highest super-long tunnel. The tunnel is located at the junction of Lhasa and Nyingchi in the Tibet autonomous region at an aver… read more

The People’s Liberation Army has declassified and made public more than 2,300 national defense patents, PLA Daily reported on Sunday.

The National Defense Intellectual Property Rights Bureau of the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department has declassified about 3,000 national defense patents and opened 2,346 of them to the public, according to PLA Daily.

It said it is the first time the PLA has declassified and made public military patents since it began to register such patents in 1985. The measure is intended to facilitate the transfer of military technologies to civilian industries to boost the coordinated development of the civilian and defense sectors, the report said.

The patents can be viewed at weain.mil.cn－a website managed by the CMC Equipment Development Department’s Procurement Information Service Center－in the “Patent and Achievement” section where a total of 101 pages of detailed patent entries are available for public viewing.

The first several pages checked by China Daily contain a wide range of patents, such as those relating to missiles, aircraft, communications, vehicles and tracking systems.

Each entry lists details of the patent, including its designated code, the dates of its submission and approval, its inventor and his or her employer, its function and the patent’s agent and its legal status.

PLA Daily said that previously, it was difficult for defense patents, which are generally classified and not available for public searching like those for civilian use, to be transferred to civilian users because of the absence of related policies and poor communication between the PLA and civilian sectors.

It said that in 2015, the military started to organize patent holders to review their patents and determine whether the patents could be declassified.

The bureau plans to establish regulations on the confidentiality and declassification of national defense patents, pledging to declassify and publish patents on a regular basis, PLA Daily reported, saying these measures will help to make good use of defense patents and to nurture innovation in the development of weapons and equipment.

A defense technology industry observer in Beijing, who wished to be identified as Wu, said that opening suitable defense patents to the public benefits businesses, as they can use these patents to save on their research spending.

“Military and defense contractors can also save research and development funds, because in the past, many defense technology researchers had no access to patent information that was submitted by other researchers, which led to them conducting research that had already been done,” Wu said.

“Now they can check with patent information before embarking on a new project, which will save money for the PLA and their employer,” he said.