Slashdot Mirror


China Plans to Surpass the U.S. in Nanotech Development

SoyChemist writes "Sociologists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting have reported that China is making major investments in nanotechnology. Their aim is to 'leapfrog' past the United States in technological development by focusing on long-ranging scientific goals. So far, the Chinese government has poured about $400 million into the young field of research. Considering the low cost of equipment and labor over there, that is a very large sum of money, and China's investment is expected to 'rise considerably.'"

4 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. china needs to be taught a lesson!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I think, and I know a lot of american patriots think the same as me, that china is getting to big for it's boots this olympics business has given them an ego boost, the american race should cut the chinks down to size with a nuke like we did with the japs, the american way!

  2. Re:USA has no national goals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I don't see the point.

    Exactly. You're ignorant about the world, and you don't see the point.

  3. I sense a disturbance in The Force... by flajann · · Score: 1, Troll
    Really, all "great" nations that have had their day in the sun never stay there forever. The US is no different. Why should this come as a surprise? Who props up the US debt these days? Who has the US by its financial balls? Hello! Is anyone paying attention?

    I personally welcome China in its rise to technological and ecomonic dominance. The US had its chance and has failed miserably. Them are the breaks. The US still hasen't figured out that in the 21st century, it is not military might that will win the day, but ecomonic might.

    But the death-thoes of the US has been clearly visible for awhile now. Notice how the stuborn US continues to try to push for military solutions to geopolitical problems, and makes big fanfare on beating up small countries that could not hope to poise a real military threat to the US.

    What's scary is that the US people seem to think this is a "good thing", this big bully on the block beating up all the little kids and thinking that that in and of itself makes "America Strong". How utterly pathetic, how utterly puerile, and how utterly futile.

    China has the right idea -- allow the US to waste all of its borrowed money on building something that has no return -- the military -- whilst it uses its smarts and invest in new technologies and projects that will have a return.

    The public schools in the US are abysmal with regards to the rest of the world. The US doesn't even see it as fit to invest in the stock of its own young. This too is also very telling.

    Not to mention the rise of religious fundamentalism in the US, which attacks science every chance it gets. Yet another bone-head move for the US.

    You know what? You get what you frelling deserve. Wake up and smell the coffee. Me? I'm going to start studying my Manderain, so at least I'll have a chance to survive and hang on when reality hits the idiots.

  4. personal Chinese history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    My mother was born in 1934, 15 years before Mao took over China. During that 15 years she lost her father and 7 of her 9 siblings to the wars, diseases, droughts, floods, and famines that happened every several years, and she was from Hunan, a major rice production province in China. Her family owned a small piece of land in the countryside which had been the main food source to the family. She told me that even in good years they must keep the food consumptions very low, e.g., 100-200g per person per day during the months before the harvest.

    My brother was born in 1960, the height of the only famine you westerners know of in China, and the only major deadly famine after the "Liberation". He lived an is still healthy and happy, and he belongs to the Red Guards generation that rocked the Culture Revolution period. My mother said that during the famine she had a ration of 100g of food every day, and another 100g of food for the baby. And all her living family members lived through the famine. Even though everyone were hungry all the time, thanks to the ration systems they managed, and it's nothing they hadn't seen before. If all people were starved to death during the famine how come there were still so many red guards roaming around the streets and the government even had to institute the one baby per family policy in the 80s? Use your head! If you were to blame Mao for the famine, then you'd probably also had to acknowledge him for the success of increasing the population, don't you?

    From my mother's point of view, before the liberation when the famine strike there was nobody to ask help from. The Nationalist government was too weak and too busy with either killing the communists or fleeing from the Japanese or fighting the civil war. With Mao you at least had someone who claimed to be the "big saving star" so at least he had to do something. At least he was trying. At least you don't have the warlords running around all the time. At least you don't have the Japs invading. At least you don't have the puppy governments trying to turn China into another banana republic. Even after Mao died and Deng took over, when Chinese government set the import/export and trade regulations they can at least enforce them. When a foreign nation threats with sanctions or punitive import tax at least China can threat back. You think all these come easy? I'd say without Mao and the US defeat in Korea and Vietnam this would have never happened. Look again how the US is still manipulating the small and weak nations around the world.