On the morning of June 6th, the achievements of the construction of the Yangtze River Delta(YRD) regional quantum secure communication backbone network were announced at the 5th High-Level Forum on the Integrated Development of YRD. The network is the first in the world to achieve ring protection of thousands of kilometers of integrated space-to-ground quantum backbone network.

The total length of the quantum secure communication backbone network in the Yangtze River Delta region extends to approximately 2860 kilometers. It forms a ring network with core nodes in Hefei and Shanghai, connecting cities such as Nanjing (Jiangsu Province), Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province), Wuxi (Jiangsu Province), Jinhua (Zhejiang Province), and Wuhu (Anhui Province). The network adopts independently developed quantum business operation support systems and satellite scheduling systems to provide comprehensive protection for the integrated space-to-ground quantum secure communication network.

Quantum communication is the next-generation information technology that ensures information security. It is proposed in the "Outline of the Yangtze River Delta Regional Integrated Development Plan" to accelerate the development of the quantum communication industry, coordinate the layout and plan the construction of the quantum secure communication backbone network, and achieve seamless integration with the national wide-area quantum secure communication backbone network.

So far, the Yangtze River Delta region has grown into a leading area of quantum information industry in China and even the world, topping other regions in industrial scale, technology levels, and industrial chain completeness. It has formed a nascent framework of "basic research-technology development-achievement transformation-industrial ecology". As an early starter in the construction and application of quantum secure communication networks, Anhui has already put its Next-Generation Quantum Metropolitan Area Network in Hefei into operation. It is by now the largest-scale, most user-rich, and most comprehensive quantum secure communication metropolitan area network, and also has the capability to access the national wide-area quantum secure communication backbone network. In the future, as the quantum secure communication network in the Yangtze River Delta region becomes denser, the role of quantum technology innovation and the industrial hub will continue to emerge, helping to strengthen China's information security defenses. (Reported by Wang Hongyi, Xu Haojie)