Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge opens a path to greater innovation

Note: The following is an edited translation of a commentary from the Chinese-language "Commentaries on International Affairs."

On Tuesday, China's President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in Zhuhai. This megaproject, which has been under construction for 15 years, officially went into service, providing the first land connection between Zhuhai, Macao, and Hong Kong.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, announces the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge at an opening ceremony in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Oct. 23, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the world's longest and most substantial cross-sea infrastructure project. It is also the most important piece of transportation infrastructure in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area.

Thanks to the bridge, the travel time from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and Macao can be shortened from three hours down to about 45 minutes, which will greatly help the integration of the three regions. The bridge will completely change the social, economic, and transport structure of the Greater Bay Area, according to Meng Fanchao, the chief designer of the bridge, adding that it will open up opportunities for a new way of life, and deliver economic benefits worth trillions.

New materials, new processes, and new equipment were needed to make the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge a reality, with more than 400 patents filed throughout the process. Su Quanke, the chief engineer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Administration, said that the bridge is "a veritable bridge of technology and a bridge of innovation. Behind these world-class challenges are a series of innovative drivers and strong technical support."

For example, in order to cope with the extreme conditions it might face during its 120-year lifespan, it was engineered to withstand category-16 typhoons and magnitude-7 level earthquakes. This is an extraordinary achievement when you consider that at the same time the construction broke records for the world's largest steel bridge and the world's longest underwater tunnel, and floating installation, and that two artificial islands had to be created. At the same time, the construction took place in a waterway that's home to a large number of white dolphins. Despite the scale of the project, the size of the dolphin population in the area has actually increased from 1,200 in 2010 to more than 2,000 today. Taken together, these achievements help to demonstrate why the bridge is known as "Mount Everest" in the bridge industry, and why The Guardian newspaper named it one of the "seven wonders of the modern world".

Photo taken on August 25, 2017 shows a view of the world's longest cross-sea bridge, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, under construction against Hong Kong's Lantau Island in the background. [Photo: IC]

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the most recent example of China's innovation. It is the newest marker of progress on China's 40-year journey of reform and opening up, as China and its people have sought to build better lives through technological innovation. In 2017, the contribution rate of China's scientific and technological progress to economic growth reached 57.5 percent, close to the target of 60 percent set for 2020. The number of invention patent applications was almost 1.4 million, ranking China first in the world for seven consecutive years. China broke into the World Intellectual Property Organization's "Top 20 Global Innovation Index" for the first time this year. And Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum and one of the witnesses of China's reform and opening up, has described China as being on track to build an innovative society.

On the day before the bridge opened, President Xi Jinping emphasized during a visit to the Hengqin New District in Zhuhai that manufacturing is the key to the real economy. At the core of manufacturing is innovation, and so to master key core technologies, China must be a self-reliant and independent innovator. In this respect, the opening of this new bridge brings China a big step closer to realizing its plan to transform the Greater Bay Area into a global science and technology innovation center.