Jian-Wei Pan, China’s “father of quantum”

I think QKD encryption will be essential in the future for securing our data. Data leaks as seen with big tech companies like Google, Facebook, etc. are a massive problem and will only continue to become worse as big data grows. QKD could nip the problem in the bud (may require large infrastructure investment) and save us all a lot of privacy headaches as we move towards a data-fueled future.

Wait, I’m confused... how is a country like China that is known for the most horrific human rights violations be a proponent for technologies like quantum computing and encryption?

If people think that China's is still a science backwater think again. China actually ranks 2nd on many science research areas by the number of articles published in prestigious journals (e.g. Nature), so China is one of leaders in the 2nd tier. The 1st consists of US only and the 2nd tier consists of contenders like Germany, Japan, UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, South Korea and Spain (just) if I remember correctly. I need to dig up the figures, but it was compiled by a reputable publication.