All Quantum Policy & Sovereignty Posts
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China's Quantum Ambition
China’s Quantum Talent Ecosystem: Building a Superpower’s Workforce
In 1996, a 26-year-old physics student from the University of Science and Technology of China arrived in Vienna to begin doctoral work under Anton Zeilinger, one of the world's leading quantum experimentalists. Five years later, he went home. That decision — one young physicist choosing to return to a country that had no quantum information program to speak of — set in motion what has…
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China's Quantum Ambition
China’s Hefei National Laboratory: The Nerve Center of a Quantum Superpower
On April 26, 2016, Xi Jinping walked into USTC's Advanced Technology Research Institute in Hefei and listened to a physicist named Pan Jianwei describe the future of quantum information science. What Xi said next — "Very promising, very important… the country will definitely support this" — set in motion the largest single investment in quantum technology any nation has ever made. Within a year, construction…
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China's Quantum Ambition
The $15.3 Billion Number That Everyone Cites and Nobody Can Verify
In October 2023, I was on a call with a European defense ministry official who wanted to discuss quantum threats. Within the first five minutes, he cited it. "China has invested $15.3 billion in quantum technology - nearly double the EU and four times the United States." He said it with the confidence of someone quoting a law of physics. I asked where the number…
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China's Quantum Ambition
China’s 15th Five-Year Plan Makes Quantum an Industrial Imperative — Not Just a Research Priority
When China's National People's Congress approved the 15th Five-Year Plan on March 12, 2026, it completed a journey that had been building for over a decade. Quantum technology, once buried deep in academic research budgets, emerged at the top of Beijing's list of seven "future industries" designated as new engines of national economic growth. Above biomanufacturing. Above hydrogen energy. Above 6G. Above brain-computer interfaces. Above…
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China's Quantum Ambition
The Leapfrog Doctrine: How China Systematically Conquered Every Technology It Targeted
Almost fifteen years ago, I stood on the mezzanine floor of a manufacturing facility in Dongguan, staring into the dark. Literally. Below me, a sprawling production line hummed with the rhythmic, pneumatic hiss of assembly arms and the whine of servos. There were no overhead lights. There were no workers on the line. There was only the glow of status LEDs blinking in the gloom,…
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Quantum Policies
NIS2, DORA, and the EU Post-Quantum Roadmap
If you are a CISO under NIS2 or DORA, you are already expected to run a risk-management system that tracks material, evolving threats - and to implement “state‑of‑the‑art” controls appropriate to the risk. The EU’s PQC roadmap is effectively saying: quantum is now one of those evolving threats you must govern. The most important conceptual shift for leadership teams is this: the EU is not (yet)…
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Quantum Policies
The Complete US Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Regulatory Framework in 2026
Three pillars anchor the US PQC framework: the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act (federal law that no executive order can undo), NSM-10's 2035 migration target (still in force), and NIST's finalized FIPS standards (published August 2024). The Trump administration's June 2025 executive order streamlined, rather than eliminated, PQC obligations, removing prescriptive procurement mandates while retaining the CISA product category list and a TLS 1.3 deadline…
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Quantum Policies
No Single Law, No Single Excuse: How Canada Regulates PQC Without Saying “Quantum”
Canada's visible PQC guidance - three documents published mid-2025 - is just the tip. Beneath it sits a layered enforcement framework spanning financial regulation, critical infrastructure law, privacy obligations, and securities disclosure that collectively creates binding pressure for quantum readiness. OSFI already requires federally regulated financial institutions to maintain "strong cryptographic technologies" and has issued a direct quantum readiness bulletin. The pending CCSPA would add…
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