China science, technology news summary -- Nov. 21

BEIJING, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

SATELLITE LAUNCH

China launched a new satellite from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the northern province of Shanxi on Saturday.

The satellite, Gaofen-11 03, was launched by a Long March-4B rocket at 9:51 a.m. (Beijing Time) and entered the planned orbit successfully.

Developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the satellite will be mainly used for land surveys, city planning, land rights confirmation, road network design, crop yield estimation and disaster prevention and mitigation.

NEW ENERGY VEHICLES

China is expected to have more than 300 million registered automobiles by the end of this year, an official with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Saturday during a forum at the World Manufacturing Convention held in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

Statistics showed that from January to October, the cumulative production and sales volumes of new energy vehicles increased by about 1.8 times year on year in China. New energy vehicles accounted for 11 percent of the gross car sales.

A report on China's new energy vehicle industry was released at the forum, saying that after about 20 years of development, China's new energy vehicle industry is entering the market-driven growth phase, and marching towards a new stage of high-quality development.

5G INDUSTRIAL INTERNET

The 2021 China 5G + Industrial Internet Conference, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the People's Government of Hubei Province, kicked off on Saturday in central China's Wuhan.

Academicians and experts, entrepreneurs and industry association representatives from across the country gathered at the national-level event to discuss the wider integration and innovation of 5G and the industrial internet.

A total of 21 thematic sessions have begun at the conference since Friday. Themes cover applications in industries such as mining, steel, transportation, manufacturing, electric power, integrated innovation in healthcare, education and smart cities, and key technologies such as industrial internet identification, security ecology, blockchain application and industrial intelligence.