For a country notorious for its restrictive internet policies, China seems to be taking the lead on developing next-generation internet communications. The city of Jinan is set to become the hub of this quantum communications network that will boost Beijing-Shanghai internet when the project is launched by the end of August. It is set to become the world’s first “unhackable” internet communications network.
Unlike encryption methods that hide the key under difficult mathematical problems, quantum communication and cryptography use entanglement to do the trick. Concretely, the key is embedded in photons (light particles) and sent ahead of the encrypted message — a method called quantum key distribution (QKD).
Communication becomes “unhackable” this way because any attempt to intercept the key would be obvious to the sender and the intended recipient. What’s even more impressive is that China has the technology to extend quantum communications up to 400 kilometers (about 250 miles), as previously demonstrated in a quantum cryptography research in Hefei.
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