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China has a "stunning lead" over the US:
The Biden administration might be limiting China's ability to manufacture advanced chips, but according to an independent think tank, the Asian nation is still ahead of the US when it comes to research in 37 out of 44 crucial and emerging technologies, including AI, defense, and key quantum tech areas.
Insider reports that the Canberra-based Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) believes China has a "stunning lead" over the US when it comes to high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains.
[...] The think tank notes that for some of these technologies, the ten leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country, which is usually the US. What could be especially worrying for America is that two areas where China really excels are Defense and space-related technologies. ASPI writes that China's advancements in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles took the US by surprise in 2021.
How is China so far ahead? Some of it is down to imported talent. The report notes that one-fifth of its high-impact papers are being authored by researchers with postgraduate training in a Five-Eyes country (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States). However, most of China's progress comes from deliberate design and long-term policy planning by President Xi Jinping and his predecessors.
The near-term effects of China's lead could see it gaining a stranglehold on the global supply of certain critical technologies, while the long-term impact could result in the authoritarian state gaining more global influence and power.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 06, @01:57AM (1 child)
The difference is that the developed world didn't know the damage that was being caused back then, and it was on a much smaller scale. Today, we know that burning coal releases tremendous amounts of CO2, which is driving extreme weather events, raising sea levels, destroying ecosystems, causing extinctions.
The developed world used ozone-destroying chemicals to build their economies. Is it therefore okay for China and India to pump those chemicals into the atmosphere? For how long? Until the entire ozone layer is destroyed?
The developed world also used chattel slavery to build their economies. Is it therefore okay for China and India to enslave people and force them to work to death? For how long? Until all their "troublesome" minorities are eradicated?
Wait, hang on though...
Isn't China part of the developed world? I thought they were the world's number 2 economy? Factory of the world? Challenging the US for global influence? They put a rover on the moon, and have their own permanently crewed space station FFS! How much more developed do they need to get, before we stop excusing their crimes as "growing pains"?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 07, @11:08PM
In a few centuries, it could be a serious problem. But it isn't now.
I'll note that we don't actually know how harmful ozone-destroying chemicals are. The evidence is heavily subject to observation bias. For example, we don't know if ozone holes are a new, alarming thing that required the effort we put into suppressing CFCs, or something that's been going on for the past five million years which might get mildly worse with that human contribution. We just know that when we looked for ozone holes, we saw them.