The recent widespread ransomware cyberattack is a landmark incident showing that computer viruses can attack anyone anywhere rather than just targeting certain groups, senior Chinese cybersecurity officials said.

They also said China must be able to handle similar and even worse attacks in the future.

“WannaCry has no specific target. All Windows users are potentially the targets of the highly infectious virus. It has caused enormous panic among people around the world because it poses a direct threat,” said Liu Xinran, deputy director of the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Coordination Center.

He made the remarks during the center’s 2017 annual conference in Qingdao, Shandong Province, held Monday to Wednesday.

WannaCry, exploiting a security loophole in Windows, blocks users from accessing their own files. It encrypts data and system files, which the user can then access only by paying $300 in online bitcoin currency within seven days.

The attacks peaked between May 13 and 14 in China. Some gas stations run by China National Petroleum Corp in several cities could not process card and mobile payments because of the ransomware.

“It’s really difficult to calculate the exact damage the virus has caused in China because it disrupts the normal functions of many organizations, which can hardly be quantified,” said Yan Hanbing, director of the operation department at CNCERT, as the response team is known.

Chen Zhaoxiong, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said that as internet-based services have been deeply integrated into people’s daily activities, such attacks now have more effect on people’s lives than just interrupting cyberspace.

Threats of such attacks already represent severe security threats to key sectors including finance, transportation and energy in China, he added.

“WannaCry is just a warning sign. We need a better defense and warning system for severe attacks that are beyond our imagination in the future,” said Yang Peng, a senior engineer at the center.

“China will be in great danger if similar viruses are used by other governments to start a cyberwar,” he said.

Large corporations cannot afford to have cybersecurity loopholes caused by poor management because it matters to national security, Yang said.

Some corporations in key sectors were completely unaware that hackers implanted a virus in their system three years ago and their data had already been stolen, he added.

China has stressed the significance of philosophy and social sciences in developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics are a necessary requirement in the new era, said Wang Weiguang, president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Philosophy and social sciences play an critical role in the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” Wang said.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China is speeding up building “philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics,” a system including various fields such as history, economics, politics, culture, society and ecology.

It is necessary for philosophy and social sciences to better play their role in the complicated international situation when various thoughts and cultures intertwine, said Wang.

With more than 30 years of reform and opening up, China has made remarkable economic and social progress, but various ideologies and thoughts keep cropping up.

It is still a complex task to build consensus. We have an urgent need to solve these major theoretical and practical problems through philosophy and social sciences with Chinese characteristics, Wang said.

China successfully installed the containment dome for its first demonstration nuclear power project using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, in east China’s Fujian Province on Thursday.

The hemispherical dome, weighing 340 tonnes and measuring 46.8 meters in diameter, was installed by crane on the No.5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Fuqing City at 5:58 p.m.

The installation marks the completion of construction work on the pilot project and the beginning of the assembly stage, said Yu Peigen, deputy general manager of CNNC at the site of installation.

The dome will be used for protection against nuclear accidents under extreme conditions, and both its design and installation are very demanding processes.

“The installation is much more difficult than that of traditional nuclear reactors because the whole weight of the dome and the ropes is more than 500 tonnes,” said Yang Jianguo, the lifting commander at the site.

Construction of the pilot project began in May 2015 and was scheduled to take about 62 months to finish.

The successful installation of the dome will contribute to the development of China’s domestic third-generation reactor design and enhance the confidence in Hualong One among Belt and Road countries to boost cooperation, said Wang Shoujun, chairman of CNNC.

The country has actively promoted Hualong One at home and abroad. There are now four projects using Hualong One design under construction, including two reactors in Karachi, Pakistan.

During the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation earlier this month, CNNC also signed a cooperation framework agreement with Argentina, a key emerging market for Chinese companies, which included using the Hualong One design for the country’s fifth nuclear unit.

The Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration (CAAA) on Thursday signed memorandums of understanding with polar region research institutions from six countries in order to step up cooperation in the field.

According to the administration, the memorandums will deepen cooperation with Argentina, Chile, Germany, Norway, Russia and the United States, in fields such as site inspection, scientific research, logistic support, environmental protection and management, personnel exchanges, policy planning and education.

All sides agreed to practice international cooperation as advocated by the Antarctic Treaty to deepen practical cooperation.

The CAAA is under the administration of the State Oceanic Administration, which has led its affiliated institutions to sign cooperative agreements with more than 10 countries in the study of Arctic and Antarctic regions.

The president of China Coal Energy Co., Ltd., Gao Jianjun, is under investigation for suspected serious violations of the Party’s disciplines, China’s anti-graft authority said Thursday.

The news was released on websites of both the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The Shanghai-listed company is a subsidiary of China National Coal Group Corporation, a major state coal producer in China.