On Tuesday, China launched the world's first quantum satellite, designed "to establish 'hack-proof' quantum communications," the official Xinhua news agency announced.
During its two year mission, the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale satellite will "transmit uncrackable keys from space to the ground," Xinhua reports. "Quantum communication boasts ultra-high security as a quantum photon can neither be separated nor duplicated. It is hence impossible to wiretap, intercept, or crack the information transmitted through it."
China says it needs to have secure communications between Beijing and Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, because the government is going up against an Islamist insurgency in the area, Reuters reports.
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