For many years the United States has regarded
itself as, and been, the world’s technological leader. One can easily make a
long and impressive list of seminal discoveries and inventions coming from
America, from the moon landings to the internet. It was an astonishing
performance. The US maintains a lead, though usually a shrinking one, in many
fields. But:
China has risen explosively, from being
clearly a “Third World” country forty years ago to become a very serious and
rapidly advancing competitor to America. Anyone who has seen today’s China (I
recently spent two weeks there, traveling muchly) will have been astonished by
the ubiquitous construction, the quality of planning, the roads and airports
and high-speed rail, the sense of confidence and modernity. Compare this with
America’s rotting and dangerous cities, swarms of homeless people,
deteriorating education, antique rail, deindustrialized midlands, loony
government, and the military sucking blood from the economy like some vast
leech, and America will seem yesterday’s country. The phrase “national suicide”
comes to mind.
A common response to these observations from thunder-thump
patriots is the assertion that the Chinese can’t invent anything, just copy and
steal. What one actually sees is a combination of rapid and successful adoption
of foreign technology (see Shanghai maglev below) and, increasingly, cutting
edge science and technology. More attention might be in order. A few
examples: A few examples from many that might be adduced:
“China Confirms Scientist
Genetically Engineered Babies”
Supposedly the intent was to make the twins
resistant to AIDS. It was done using CRISPR-Cas 9, a gene-editing technique
invented in the West by Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier but quickly
mastered by China. It seemed odd that AIDS resistance would be the goal since
the disease is easily avoided. Maybe, I thought, for some technical reason the
insertion was particularly easy. But then:
“China’s Genetically Edited Twins May Have
Enhanced Brains ‘By Accident’”
“By accident” indeed. Since the researchers
admitted being aware of the neurologic effects of CCR5, the gene in question,
the experiment sure looked like a shot at increasing intelligence. But maybe
not. Then:
“Chinese researchers insert human brain
gene into monkeys, making them smarter”
Whether the insertion in fact had the effect
described, I do not know, and the story may be or may not be sensationalized.
Of interest are, first, that it was an attempt to engineer intelligence,
second, that it involved inserting a human gene in a (presumably) lower
primate, and third, that the Chinese did it.
“China, Huawei to Launch 5G network in
Shanghai Station”
Though 5G is usually presented as an
improvement to smartphones, it is far more, and the Chinese seem poised to jump
on it hard. See below.
“World’s First 5G powered Remote Brain Surgery
Performed in China”
It is interesting that China and South Korea
are clear leaders in 5G. The US, unable to compete seeks to prohibit its
European vassals from dealing with Huawei by threatening sanctions. Germany has
refused to obey. .
Huawei’s 5G Dominance In The Post-American
World – Forbes
Whether Forbes’ overstates the facts can
perhaps be argued. That China has come from nowhere to be ahead in a crucial
technology ought to be a wake-up call. That America has to rely on sanctions
instead of better technology accentuates the point.
“More Than 510,000 Overseas Students Return
to China”
This year. A couple of decades ago, Chinese
students in the US often refused to return to a backward and repressive
country. It now appears that Asia is where the action is and they want to be
part of it.
“Chinese Bullet Trains Depend on Mega
Bridges”+
These things are everywhere. Click the link. In most
countries roads and rails follow the contour of the land. China likes pillars.
Digging subways is expensive and disruptive,
cutting highways through cities is destructive of homes and business, so China
goes with sky-trains. Building these takes about half the land as roadways. The
bridges are built offsite and then erected with a special crane.
“China Develops Infrared Light to Alter
Genes of Cancer Cells”
A team led by Professor Song Yujun from the
Nanjing University’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences designed an
infrared light-responsive nano-carrier to be used for the CRISPR-Cas9
gene-editing tool, which will have great potential in cancer therapeutics. The
strong penetrability of infrared light enables scientists to precisely control
the gene editing tool in deep human tissue”
I am clueless as to the function of IR in this
but, as with so very many stories coming out of China, it does not suggest
copycatting. Increasingly, the Chinese seem to follow from in front.
“China Breaks Quantum Entanglement Record
at Eighteen Qbits”
In a new record, Pan Jianwei and colleagues at
the University of Science and Technology of China, eastern China’s Anhui
Province, demonstrated a stable 18-qubit state. The previous record of 10
qubits was set by the same team. The breakthrough was made possible by
simultaneously manipulating the freedom-paths, polarization, and orbital
angular momentum of six photons.
“The speed of quantum computing grows
exponentially as the number of qubits in an entangled state increases … the
achievement of an 18-qubit entanglement this time has set the world record for
largest entanglement state in all physical systems,” Wan
(Noah’s ark measured 300 Qbits,
but the (barely) antediluvian technology has bee lost.)
Open Date: Dec. 31st, 2002
Total Length: 30 kilometers (19 miles)
Highest Speed: 430km/h (267 mi/h)
Duration per Single Journey: 8 minutes
Frequency: 15-20 minutes
Route: Longyang Rd. – Pudong International Airport (PVG
Total Length: 30 kilometers (19 miles)
Highest Speed: 430km/h (267 mi/h)
Duration per Single Journey: 8 minutes
Frequency: 15-20 minutes
Route: Longyang Rd. – Pudong International Airport (PVG
Trains relying on magnetic levitation float on
a field of magnetic repulsion, having no contact with rails. This reduces
friction and ends wear on wheels and rails. China did not invent the technology
but uses it well. Before this train, the trip from downtown to the airport took
forty minutes to an hour. Now, eight minutes. The technology is German, the
idea a century old, but the Chinese decided that they wanted it, and got it.
The ability to make a decision and act on it without years of political
wrangling and lawsuits gives China a major advantage over other countries.
The video is long, at 43 minutes, a bit
ray-rah, and wanders briefly off into the history of elevated rail in Chicago
but gives a good picture of the train, the technology at a non-specialist
level, and the China in which it runs.
Rand: Chilling World War III Wargames
show US Forces Crushed by Russia and China
“RAND Senior Defense Analyst David Ochmanek discussed the
simulations at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
in Washington D.C. last week. “In our games, where we fight China or Russia …
blue gets its a** handed to it, not to put too fine a point on it,” he said,
during a panel discussion. Blue
denotes U.S. forces in the simulations.”
The reasons for this are several and belong in
another column. The military’s utterly predictable response is “Send more
money” instead of “Maybe we should mind our own business and spend on our
economy.” The point here is that the world is changing in may ways and
Washington seems not to have noticed.
Conclusion
The list could be extended at length, to cover
numbers of patents awarded, scientific papers published, quantum communications,
investment in education and technological research and development,
supercomputers and chip design and many other things. Beijing is clearly bent
on Making China Great Again–as why should it not? Meanwhile, America focuses
more on transgender bathrooms and whether Bruce Jenner is a girl than on its
endless and draining wars. China sends its brightest to the world’s best
technical school while America makes its universities into playpens for the
mildly retarded. The country crumbles but spends drunkenly of defective fighter
planes it doesn’t need in the first place.
This won’t work a whole lot longer.
Fred Reed is author
of Nekkid in Austin: Drop Your Inner Child Down a
Well, A Brass Pole in Bangkok: A Thing I Aspire to Be, Curmudgeing Through Paradise: Reports from a Fractal Dung
Beetle, Au Phuc Dup and Nowhere to Go: The Only Really True Book
About VietNam, and A Grand Adventure: Wisdom's Price-Along with Bits and
Pieces about Mexico. Visit his blog.
Copyright © 2019 Fred Reed
