HEFEI, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have reported a series of advances in weather forecasting and drug discovery powered by quantum technology, highlighting how a field once regarded as a distant scientific ambition is steadily transitioning from the laboratory to real-world use.
Researchers from Fudan University and University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) recently demonstrated that quantum machine learning could outperform large-scale classical neural networks in certain real-world weather forecasting tasks, including urban temperature and humidity prediction.
In another breakthrough, Chinese tech company Origin Quantum and USTC researchers developed a quantum-enhanced graph neural network on China's independently developed superconducting quantum computer, Origin Wukong, that boosted HIV antiviral drug screening accuracy from 73 percent to 97 percent and Alzheimer's drug prediction accuracy from 64 percent to 70 percent.
While fully fault-tolerant quantum computers remain years away, these advances reflect a broader reality: different branches of quantum technology are beginning to mature at different speeds, with applications already emerging in secure communications, healthcare, scientific research and industrial computing.
Among them, quantum communications has moved furthest toward commercialization. More than 40 major Chinese cities have deployed metropolitan quantum communications networks, providing the infrastructure for quantum-secured services to move into commercial use.
At China Telecom Quantum Group, visitors can try what appears to be an ordinary smartphone. Once users activate its quantum-encrypted calling function, conversations are secured using quantum key distribution, making intercepted communications unreadable.
The company says its quantum-enabled communications, cloud and digital platform services now serve more than 7 million users and over 5,000 institutional customers across industries including finance, healthcare, manufacturing and government services.
Quantum technology is also beginning to reshape healthcare. Every heartbeat generates an extremely weak magnetic field that conventional medical instruments cannot directly detect. Quantum sensors, however, can measure these tiny signals.
One example is a magnetocardiography system developed by Chinese quantum technology company CIQTEK. Using quantum spin magnetometers, the system can complete a cardiac scan in just a few minutes, providing physicians with a new tool for early cardiovascular screening and risk assessment. The technology has already been deployed at several major hospitals in China.
For now, the most promising path toward practical quantum computing lies not in replacing today's supercomputers, but in combining the strengths of both technologies.
Inside the next-generation computing cluster in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, China's first locally deployed hybrid quantum supercomputing center combines a high-performance supercomputer with two superconducting quantum computers and one trapped-ion quantum computer.
"We break a large computational problem into smaller tasks," said Wang Guyue, director of the Project Management Center at Hefei Big Data Asset Operation Co., Ltd, operator of the computing center.
"Subproblems that have relatively simple inputs and outputs but extremely complex calculations are processed by quantum computers, while the remaining tasks stay on the classical system," Wang said. "We see quantum computing as complementing rather than replacing classical computing."
The commercial potential is already beginning to emerge.
Chen Zhengping, deputy director of the research institute at Guochuang Software, said quantum computing has been applied to photovoltaic power forecasting, improving prediction accuracy by about 5 percent compared with conventional algorithms, and could help reduce solar power curtailment by several million kilowatt-hours annually across China, making renewable energy systems more efficient.
These applications are part of a broader effort to move quantum technology beyond research laboratories and into commercial use. Over the past two decades, Hefei has developed one of China's largest quantum technology ecosystems, bringing together more than 100 companies across the industrial chain.
To accelerate commercialization, Anhui has launched an initiative encouraging quantum technologies to be tested in hundreds of real-world scenarios, from secure communications to renewable energy. Hefei is also establishing a 10-billion-yuan (1.47 billion U.S. dollars) fund to support emerging technologies, including quantum technology, according to Chen Jun, director of the Anhui provincial development and reform commission.
Chinese quantum companies are also expanding internationally. Origin Quantum has begun exporting quantum computing equipment and cloud computing services, particularly to Belt and Road partner countries. In July 2026, Thailand's Chulalongkorn University announced a partnership with University of Science and Technology of China and Chinese quantum computing company Unitary Quantum to jointly build Thailand's first trapped-ion quantum computer.
While many challenges remain before large-scale quantum computing becomes commonplace, the industry's focus has already shifted from proving that quantum technology works to discovering where it can create real economic and social value. ■
