Zhongguancun Forum unveils top tech breakthroughs

The 2025 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) opened on Thursday, unveiling 10 major scientific and technological achievements. The opening ceremony brought together China's Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, along with leading colleges and enterprises, to jointly release the list.

China's 'artificial sun' sets new fusion record

Dubbed the "artificial sun," the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) simulates nuclear fusion reactions inside the sun and explores key challenges related to controlled nuclear fusion. On January 15, 2025, the EAST team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully achieved a steady-state, long-pulse, high-confinement mode plasma operation for 1,066 seconds at temperatures exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius. This accomplishment sets a new world record for tokamak operation in high-confinement mode.

China's fourth-generation light source facility

China's High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), the world's brightest fourth-generation synchrotron light source, achieved a critical milestone on October 12, 2024. The facility's W73 wiggler emitted high-energy X-rays that traveled through a 350-meter beamline to the Hard X-ray Imaging (HXI) station, capturing sub-micron resolution images with just a 0.1-second exposure. This breakthrough demonstrates the facility's capability for multi-scale, multi-contrast imaging, which is crucial for aerospace material analysis, life sciences research and industrial R&D.

HEPS is designed to be one of the brightest fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facilities in the world. It has now entered its final joint commissioning phase and is expected to be fully operational by late 2025.

China's first ocean drilling vessel

China's first domestically designed and built deep-ocean drilling vessel, Meng Xiang, entered service in south China's Guangzhou City in November 2024. Developed by China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the vessel features a modular design and has overcome multiple world-class technical challenges. With a maximum drilling depth of 11,000 meters, it serves as a "mobile maritime laboratory," capable of navigating and operating in unrestricted ocean areas worldwide. 

The list also highlights various AI-driven applications, including high-performance alloy development, protein structure prediction, biomaterials innovation, pediatric healthcare assistance, personalized learning, financial anti-fraud systems, embodied large-model robots and AI-powered smartphone agents.

The forum, running from March 27 to 31 in Beijing, is themed "New Quality Productive Forces and Global Technological Cooperation," featuring 128 events across five sections.

Established in 2007 with the permanent theme of "Innovation and Development," the ZGC Forum has held 15 editions, hosting thousands of parallel forums and supporting events that have attracted hundreds of thousands of participants.