Chinese scientists are developing the world's first quantum computer, which will be much faster than current supercomputers and is expected to come into fruition in a few years, according to a top scientist.

Chinese scientists are able to control the change between single particles and the quantum state, a big step in quantum communication and computing, said Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Bai released the latest achievement in a report on the country's science and technology development and applications at a forum in Langfang, Hebei province on Monday.

The achievement shows that quantum research has stepped into a "control era" from an "observation era," Bai said.

A quantum computer will be terascale. An equation set might take the Tianhe-2 supercomputer 100 years to solve, but the quantum computer will solve it in just 0.01 seconds. Tianhe-2 was the fastest computer since 2013 but was replaced by another Chinese supercomputer, Sunway TaihuLight, last year.

China launched the world's first quantum satellite in 2016, leading the world in quantum communication.