China miles ahead of AUKUS, allies in sensor technology: Think tank

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Sep 2023 13:40

China dominates 53 out of 64 sensor-specific scientific domains compared to the 11 the US has a slight lead in.

People observe a surgical robot produced by a Chinese tech firm at the World Intelligence Congress in north China's Tianjin municipality, on May 20, 2021(Xinhua)

China's research advancements in numerous critical sensor technologies crucial for military navigation and targeting have significantly outpaced those of AUKUS: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, a recent report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) revealed.

The situation is further complicated for countries competing with China in this domain. Even if these three nations were to team up with like-minded Indo-Pacific nations, including Japan and South Korea, they would still find themselves unable to match China's output in high-impact research.

The ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker, designed to assess the global impact of cutting-edge research, concluded in its most recent report that, with regards to advanced sensors, China holds a leading position in various domains, including inertial navigation systems, magnetic field sensors, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors, photonic sensors, radar technology, satellite positioning, and navigation systems, as well as sonar and acoustic sensors. Meanwhile, the US is only ahead in quantum sensors, atomic clocks, and gravitational sensors.

In a broader perspective, when considering a total of 64 more specific technologies that have been evaluated so far, China emerges as the dominant player, holding a commanding position in 53 of these technologies, while the United States leads in only 11. This data -- as presented by Jenny Wong-Leung, a data scientist at ASPI and an honorary associate professor in the Research School of Physics at the Australian National University, and Dannielle Pilgrim, a researcher at the Canberra-based thinktank -- underscores the growing technological prowess of China in critical fields of military and strategic importance.

Their report coincided with recent findings from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, which indicated that China had claimed the top position for the number of papers published in the most influential journals. Chinese statistics, released on Wednesday, confirmed that China had surpassed the United States in 2018 in terms of the sheer volume of scientific publications.

Regarding sensor technology, the ASPI study said that the top universities focused on these technologies are the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Wuhan University, which lead in papers on seven of the 10 sensor tech areas. They further note that CAS stands as "the world's largest research organization, with over 100 institutes and three universities under its umbrella."

In addition, Wuhan University is highlighted as "the top institution in inertial navigation systems, satellite positioning and navigation, and multispectral and hyperspectral imaging," as emphasized by Wong-Leung and Pilgrim. To illustrate Wuhan's advanced capabilities, they reference a recent experiment where AI controlled a satellite in space.

Nevertheless, ASPI experts point out that China's impressive research endeavors have not yet directly translated into a significant market presence. However, this scenario is expected to evolve with the ongoing development of their technology. Currently, North America claims approximately 41% of the $200 billion remote sensor market.

The scientists further highlight that China holds a substantial share in the top 10% of highly cited publications, particularly in areas such as inertial navigation systems (44%), photonic sensors (43.7%), multispectral and hyperspectral imaging sensors (48.9%), and sonar sensors (49.4%).

The disparity in scales is so pronounced that even with the inclusion of Australia, the UK, and the US, collectively known as the three AUKUS partners, China's competitors still find themselves significantly behind in six out of the seven technologies where China holds the lead. In the seventh technology, magnetic field sensors, the competition remains closely matched, as noted by the authors.

Japan and South Korea joining forces with the AUKUS alliance will not change this reality and the gap will remain. The authors go further to say that even adding the Asian continent to the countries mentioned, they would just "creep ahead in radar and satellite positioning and navigation, but would still trail behind China in the other fields."

However, the authors highlight that these technologies extend far beyond military applications, emphasizing that "Each of these technologies is crucial to our economies, our armed forces, and our daily routines."

"Let's take global positioning systems (GPS) as a prime illustration: they serve billions of individuals daily and play an indispensable role in military operations, contributing to everything from enhancing situational awareness to guiding munitions. Yet, the precision of GPS hinges on meticulous timing, achieved through signals from terrestrial atomic clocks and an array of GPS satellites encircling the Earth."

Inertial navigation systems, as noted by the report, can assume critical importance when GPS networks face disruptions from jamming or spoofing attacks. Moreover, the remaining technologies cover a diverse range of civilian applications. For instance, magnetic and gravitational field sensors aid in mapping the Earth's upper layers, while photonic sensors find applications in measuring blood levels and other medical contexts.

Today, China is rapidly advancing its research efforts in these domains, continuously pushing the boundaries of sensor development and utilization, the report continued.

Just one day after ASPI released the report, Jennifer Ewbank, a prominent tech official from the CIA, addressed the ongoing technological competition between China and the United States in another field of immense importance: artificial intelligence.

The deputy director for digital innovation at the intelligence agency claimed that China's access to more data volume than the US is what gave the world's second-largest economy an advantage in developing and training AI.

Ewbank further added that America and its allies are at an advantage when it comes to creativity and innovation.

"I will take that innovation, ingenuity, partnerships, and creative thinking any day of the week over mass," she claimed at the Potomac Officers Club Intel Summit.