New era in China-Russia ties

People view a model of CR929 airplane during the international aviation and space salon MAKS 2019 in Zhukovsky, Russia, Aug. 27, 2019. The air show kicked off on Tuesday.(Photo: Xinhua)

China and Russia are accelerating joint research and development of technologies in the new-energy sector as part of a wider collaboration framework in the China-Russia Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation. 

Experts said that the cooperation in new energy is just one part of a bigger project for providing the world with more China-Russia solutions and industrializing new technology against the backdrop of the US' unilateral moves to decouple from China.

"Strengthening of scientific and technological cooperation is a crucial part of taking the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination to a new stage," the press officer of the Russian Embassy in China Egorov Georgy told the Global Times on Tuesday.

News reports have suggested that Chinese and Russian researchers are developing new materials to make cheap hydrogen batteries, which unlike conventional batteries, are more efficient and environmentally friendly, discharging only water or water vapor into the environment during use, the Science and Technology Daily reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese and Russian researchers involved in the development are from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Samara National Research University. 

The Chinese researchers are responsible for theoretical calculations, experiments and production of anion exchange membranes for fuel cells. The Russian researchers are focusing on developing high-performance non-platinum catalysts and testing their performance, the report said.

Battery research is just one small part of the bigger picture of China-Russian cooperation in science and technology, and both sides were already making achievements in the collaboration ahead of the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation, which started in late August.

"Russia-China scientific and technological cooperation focuses on such spheres as digital technologies, smarter transporting systems, big data processing, artificial intelligence, energy efficiency, green agriculture, biomedicine and biomedical engineering," said Georgy.

Since 2014, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has supported 57 common projects with the participation of Chinese research institutes and universities, and work on 38 such projects will continue in 2019-2020, according to the embassy's press officer.

"Since 2008, the Russian Fundamental Research Fund and Chinese National Fund of Natural Sciences have realized more than 290 common projects, which proved the high efficiency" of the joint effort, said Georgy. 

He said that one of the greatest successes is the cooperation within the NICA super project. In August 2020, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and Russian Joint Institute for Nuclear Research signed an agreement to build and operate the Complex of Superconducting Rings for Heavy Ion Colliding Beams, known as NICA.

"China's new-energy market is the world's largest and urban management of new-energy vehicles is seeing rapid development, providing many possibilities for the future development and application of new technologies," said Xiang Ligang, a veteran industry analyst.

In addition to new-energy battery technology, China and Russia may find more cooperation opportunities in areas such as armaments and aircraft manufacturing, as well as information technology, where both sides can learn and grow, said Xiang.

Song Kui, president of the Contemporary China-Russia Regional Economy Research Institute, told the Global Times Tuesday that the China-Russia Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation - which came after the China-Russia Year of Tourism and the China-Russia Year of Culture - is a new highlight of bilateral cooperation and holds great prospects for major scientific and technological cooperation. 

"Our cooperation with Russia has entered a new stage, which is no longer limited to basic scientific research. More importantly, solid progress has been made in applied research and industrialization," said Song, noting that more technology industrial zones would be expected as a part of the collaboration.

The joint launch of the innovation year comes amid the widening US crackdown on Chinese tech companies, which sends a clear sign that the US government has put politics ahead of economic development.

Chinese technology companies and institutions will benefit from the cooperation with Russia and effectively reduce their dependence on technology from the US, experts said.

"The cooperation areas may include aerospace, robotics, new materials and laser equipment, and Russia is better than the US in many of these sectors," said Song.

With concerted efforts from both countries, the number of activities scheduled to be held under the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation has exceeded 1,000, which shows the huge potential of the cooperation for scientific and technological innovation, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan said at an opening ceremony for the Year of Scientific and Technological Innovation between China and Russia on August 26, the Xinhua News Agency reported on August 27.

"China needs to advance on many fronts and find more reliable partners in the world, which is also a necessary step to reduce its dependence on the US for technology," said Xiang.