China has pledged to further expand its presence in Antarctica, including building its fifth research station. Officials in Beijing said the country was still lagging behind the U.S., Russia and Norway in exploring and studying the polar regions, which did not match China’s status as “a great country”. But they said China had no ambition to exploit the vast resources underneath the frozen continent. “China is expected, on the basis of advancing scientific cognition of the polar regions, to elevate its Antarctic activities,” according to a white paper issued by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on the occasion of the 40thAntarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Beijing. Since 1985, China has built four stations in Antarctica, two in the past decade, with the Kunlun station occupying the highest spot on the continent, Dome A. The U.S. has five research stations in Antarctica and Russia has eight. Qin Weijia, Director of SOA’s polar expedition office, said China had not spent enough on its polar efforts in the past. The white paper also expressed China’s willingness to enhance international polar cooperation, naming Norway as a potential partner, the South China Morning Post reports.

Chinese experts have succeeded in collecting samples of “combustible ice” in the South China Sea, a major breakthrough that may lead to a global energy revolution, Land and Resources Minister Jiang Daming said. China’s first success in mining flammable ice at sea came after nearly two decades of research and exploration. Combustible ice usually exists in seabed or tundra areas, which have the strong pressure and low temperature necessary for its stability. It can be ignited like solid ethanol and a cubic meter of the natural gas hydrate is equal to 164 cubic meters of regular natural gas. China began its research in 1998 and flammable ice was found in the South China Sea in 2007. Trial mining started on March 28 and experts first tapped the natural gas hydrate at a depth of 1,266 meters on May 17. Natural gas hydrate is an efficient, abundant and clean energy resource and strategically important for future global energy development as a replacement for oil and natural gas. Zhong Ziran, head of the China Geological Survey Bureau, said combustible ice is more environmentally-friendly and large reserves of it exist, the Shanghai Daily reports.

The drilling in the Shenhu area of the South China Sea was performed by the China International Marine Containers Group and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), using Blue Whale 1, an ultra deepwater semisubmersible drilling rig built by China Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore. The new energy is also known as marine natural gas hydrate. The test production has reached a steady output, yielding 113,200 cubic meters of natural gas over seven days, with average daily production of just over 16,000 cu m. It releases less than half the amount of carbon dioxide when burned compared to oil and coal. Some researchers have estimated the global reserves of methane hydrate are twice as large as those of other known fossil fuels, enough for human consumption for 1,000 years. For China, they account for half the country’s total oil and natural gas reserves on land.

Speakers at the Penn Wharton China summit in Pennsylvania, attended by 1,500 students mainly from China, called on Chinese students in the U.S. to go back to China after their studies because Chinese companies needed their talents. Speakers included the Chinese Consul in New York and former Ambassador to Belgium, Mrs. Zhang Qiyue. “We’re going through crucial changes every day and every minute,” Zhang said. “We’re trying to promote political, economic, cultural, social, and ecological development all at the same time. These transformations will come with great opportunities.” The Penn Wharton summit participants cited the importance of creative industries in the effort to reach the government’s development goals. Chinese investment in U.S. entertainment companies, including Dalian Wanda Group’s USD3.5 billion acquisition of Legendary Entertainment last year, underscores this demand. “The biggest crisis we have in China’s arts and entertainment industry is the lack of skills,” said Zhang Jizhong, Producer of a number of television series for state broadcaster CCTV. More than 328,000 students from China were registered at U.S. colleges and universities in 2016, up from 62,582 a decade earlier, according to the New York-based Institute of International Education.

China launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, into space, a crucial step for the country in building a space station by around 2022. Tianzhou-1 was launched into space by a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province. The cargo ship docked with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab to provide fuel and other supplies, and conduct space experiments. Without a cargo transport system, China’s future space station would run out of power and basic necessities. The successful Tianzhou-1 docking made China the third country after Russia and the United States to master the technique of refueling in space. The Tianzhou-1 can carry over 6 tons of supplies, exceeding the loading capacity of Russian cargo ships in active service. Tianzhou-1 will enable three astronauts to stay in the future space station for 180 days.

The Shanghai Science and Technology awards – the city’s highest awards for science and technology achievements – were handed to 265 projects and individuals. For the first time, there were two winners of the top award. Hu Lili, Director of the R&D Center of High Power Laser Optical Components of the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, won the top prize for developing technologies for the mass production of large-sized phosphate laser glass that can amplify the energy of a laser. Hu and his team spent 12 years developing key technologies for the mass production of “nd-doped” phosphate glass. The second top award winner is Yu Wenxian, Professor of the School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He and his team have made a series of breakthroughs on location applications to produce a satellite navigation system to make tracking more accurate. The technology developed has helped to create China’s largest indoor map database, which is used by internet companies including Tencent and the country’s largest map service provider Amap. The international cooperation awards went to Michail Ivanov from Russia and Jun Chen from the United States, the Shanghai Daily reports.