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LandSpace's ZQ-2 Y3 carrier rocket launches at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China's Gansu Province on December 9, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of LandSpace

From ultra-deepwater gas fields to new rocket technologies developed by a private Chinese company, winners of this year's national science awards in China celebrated their achievements on Tuesday.  

China presented the National Science and Technology Awards for 2023 at its most important annual sci-tech award ceremony held in Beijing on Monday.

The newly issued accolades highlighted the country's most significant technological advancements of the past year, which is accelerating development of new quality productive forces in China.

Following the conference, many award-winning research organizations exhibited their award certificates, sharing joy at the recognition and reiterating their commitment to advancing high-tech innovation and advancement in the future.

'Shenhai Yihao', China's first independently-developed ultra-deepwater gas field, operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), clinched the top honor at the National Science and Technology Progress Awards, standing as the only winner of this award in the marine engineering sector for the year, CNOOC told the Global Times in a statement on Tuesday.

'Shenhai Yihao' entered operation on June 25, 2021, signaling that China's offshore oil and gas exploration has entered an advanced level. As of May, the platform has recorded an accumulated natural gas output of over 8 billion cubic meters so far, with its oil output exceeding 800,000 cubic meters, according to the statement.

LandSpace, a Chinese private rocket company, also received the National Science and Technology Progress Award for its innovative technologies and applications of centrifugal pumps under complex and variable conditions. This achievement marks the first time a private rocket company has been recognized.

LandSpace said on its official WeChat account that it will strive to stand at the forefront of the industry, through the relentless pursuit of new quality productive forces and by driving industrial development through technological achievements. In January, the company completed the first flight test of its reusable rocket, Zhuque-3, paving the way for China's maiden voyage of a stainless-steel liquid-propellant rocket. 

Analysts noted that the awards represent a basic pillar of China's longstanding commitment to fostering key scientific and technological innovations, highlighting that these newly issued accolades epitomize the country's significant strides in innovation-driven high-quality development.

China's overall strength in science and technology innovation has steadily improved in recent years, with the country's research and development expenditure exceeding 3.3 trillion yuan ($463.5 billion) in 2023, an increase of 8.1 percent year on year.

In this year's Government Work Report, China vowed to fully leverage the strengths of the new system for mobilizing resources nationwide to lift China's innovation capability across the board, pushing for breakthroughs in core disruptive and frontier technologies.  

The National Science and Technology Awards, under the auspices of China's State Council, the cabinet, aims to reward those who have made outstanding contributions to sci-tech progress, speed up the nation's high-tech development, and improve technological self-reliance.

Monday's ceremony was attended by about 3,000 people and honored 250 projects and 12 scientists and engineers, with two scientists winning the top awards, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Global Times