Province is new quantum hot spot

In recent years, China has become a world leader in quantum science and technology breakthroughs, with many made by scientists from Hefei, capital of the eastern province of Anhui.

The latest advance comes from a research team at the University of Science and Technology of China, or USTC, in the city. The team has designed a prototype 62-quantum-bit programmable superconducting quantum computer.

Six months before news of the advance was published in the international journal Science, the scientists, led by the university's renowned physicist Pan Jianwei, created the world's first light-based quantum computer.