China in race to build first code-breaking quantum supercomputer

It is said that the success of British encryption experts in cracking the Nazis' "unbreakable" Enigma cipher machine probably contributed more to the Allies' eventual victory than the more famous Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb.

Today China, the US and other major powers are racing to develop another game-changer in intelligence encryption - the first quantum supercomputer, which would become the ultimate code-breaker.

Quantum computers have so far existed mainly in the world of science fiction and research laboratories. But they hit the headlines recently after it was reported that the US National Security Agency had been building "a cryptologically useful quantum computer [in] room-sized metal boxes", according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden to The Washington Post.

The NSA regards itself as on a par with quantum computing labs in Europe in terms of progress, but a breakthrough soon remains unlikely, the documents said.

China is working on an ambitious project of its own and has built a new facility in Hefei , Anhui , in which to do it.

Thanks to such bizarre features of quantum physics as "superposition" and "entanglement", a quantum machine could, the theory goes, think in terms of "zero" and "one" at the same time. It would be therefore able to carry out millions of calculations simultaneously, while even the most powerful of today's computers chug along solving each task one after the other.

The possible uses of the quantum computer make it the holy grail of intelligence encryption. It could be used to break even the most secure codes used by banks, governments and militaries around the world.