Conquer Club

If quantum communication can help to secure online communications, why is China so far ahead?

"Europe has simply missed the boat," says Prof Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist at Vienna University in Austria and a pioneer in the field.

He says he tried to convince the EU as early as 2004 to fund more quantum-based projects but it had little effect.

"Europe has been dragging its feet and this has hindered us from being able to compete," he says.

There are quantum key-based networks operating in the US and Europe but most are being carried out as research projects, rather than with commercial partners.