The China Thread

[Savonarola]

AS for innovation, its very hard to make judgments without real subject matter expertise in the particular industry and technical areas, that most of us here  don't have.

The PRC is lapping the world in patent application filings and churns out ungodly numbers of research papers, but there are serious questions of quality vs quantity.

About a quarter of the research papers I've come across in my field originate in China.  They are innovative, in the sense that the present a new idea, and they're high enough quality to make it into English language peer reviewed journals.  The papers (like almost all research papers in engineering journals) present interesting ideas but, in most cases, will never lead to practical results as they tend to be too expensive, too niche or too complicated to be applied in industry.

As an example, one of the papers out of China I read was about quantum communication - that is using the spin of an electron as a dimension of communication.  I think that's really interesting (and I contacted the chief writer of the paper for more information) but it's completely impractical at our current level of technology and only effectively doubles throughput (which may sound large, but each generation of cellular has at least increased throughput by 100 times.)

[Jacob]

China unveils new hypersonic missile https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/01/china-unveil-us-ship-killing-weapons-military-parade/

Apparently this may be a potential threat to US ability to project naval force near China?

[crazy canuck]

Xi is taking advantage of the American own goal(s)

China wants to seize on the unpopularity of America's chaotic trade policies to drive a wedge between Washington and the rest of the world, arguing that it can serve as a more stable global leader.

Mr. Xi, in his opening speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian security grouping, took not-so-subtle jabs at the United States, urging members of the group to oppose a "Cold War mentality, bloc confrontation and bullying." He said the organization mu

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/world/asia/china-xi-putin-modi.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik8.pIbR.FGOikmX98nMF&smid=url-share

[Neil]

China can't really lead the globe though.  There's still nobody that can replace the centrality of the US economy, and especially the US dollar.  The yuan still isn't a real currency.  And everything that people whine about the US doing, even Trump doing, China does as well.  Where's the basis for making a change? 

The fact that he's making the remarks at the SCO makes them even less important.  It's Russia and their bloc, Iran, Pakistan and India that he's talking to.  It's like an even more unimportant version of the BRICS 'group'. 

[Sheilbh]

As big an economic bloc than the G7 - and I'm not sure significantly less cohesive.

China does it - and they'll build you some physical infrastructure and not challenge your regime. They also manufacture lots of goods, Russia produces lots of fossil fuel energy.

I don't think we can be complacent. I think we need to work out what our vision of development is and try to win support in the rest of the world. Which is going to start with listening and working with them on their terms, not assuming that we can just dictate what matters to the world any longer. I don't think the West was a particularly compelling pitch for most of the world, just happened to be (accidentally and temporarily) the only one in town.

[Neil]

Significantly less cohesive.  And that's saying something, since Trump is at the G7. 

They have energy.  They have manufacturing (although China's demographic disaster puts them on a timer).  But they don't have finance independent of the US dollar. 

Also, I don't think their pitch is all that different.  It might be a touch more Westphalian (in the sense that it discards the idea of international norms in behaviour by governments with regards to depredations against their own citizens), and the principals are completely unrestrained in their realpolitik predatory natures, but in any case the system is such that development is advantageous to the metropole.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Seems that parade in Peking comes as a bit of shock to some people here. I wonder if it'll lead to any results in europe.
But I doubt it.

[Syt]

A look into China's surveillance state (and how Western tech is used for it):

https://apnews.com/article/chinese-surveillance-silicon-valley-uyghurs-tech-xinjiang-8e000601dadb6aea230f18170ed54e88