China’s government this week is boasting of achieving a major breakthrough in secure communications following the launch of what Beijing describes as an unhackable “quantum” satellite.
China announced Wednesday it will conduct the first experiment by transmitting quantum-coded data from a ground station in Tibet to the satellite “without having to move a physical particle.”
Xinhua said eventually quantum communication could produce physical teleportation, as shown in the 1960s science fiction program “Star Trek.”
The launch of the Micius satellite — named after the ancient Chinese philosopher and scientist — is being billed by China as a major step in ultimate communications security.
The new technology is expected to be used for China’s strategic nuclear command and control, a major target of U.S. military cyberwarfare forces, which are seeking ways to disrupt the ability of China’s leaders to command nuclear forces through cyberattacks.
The state-run news agency Xinhua reported that the experimental satellite will be used to test secure communications using photons to send encryption keys that can decode scrambled electronic communications. The system is said to use bursts of subatomic particles that are impossible to intercept and, if intercepted, the particles self-destruct, making eavesdropping nearly impossible and alerting the sender that the communication was compromised.
China announced Wednesday it will conduct the first experiment by transmitting quantum-coded data from a ground station in Tibet to the satellite “without having to move a physical particle.”
Xinhua said eventually quantum communication could produce physical teleportation, as shown in the 1960s science fiction program “Star Trek.”
The new technology will pose new challenges for the National Security Agency that, according to documents leaked by renegade contractor Edward Snowden, over the past decade scored impressive successes in capturing and decoding secret Chinese electronic communications.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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