China's Secret Scientific Megaprojects

An anonymous reader writes "The Diplomat reports on the 2006 National Medium to Long-term Plan (MLP) for the Development of Science and Technology, China's most ambitious national science and technology plan to date. The MLP consists of sixteen megaprojects — both civilian and military — that serve as 'S&T vanguard programs designed to transform China's science & technology capabilities in areas such as electronics, semiconductors, [and] telecommunications.' Thirteen of the megaprojects are listed in the MLP, while three are classified for national security reasons. The three classified megaprojects are likely the military components of the Shenguang Laser Project (used for thermonuclear weapons), the Beidou 2 Satellite Navigation System, and the Hypersonic Vehicle Technology Project."

Comments

We're safe

[smittyoneeach]

They haven't started on the project framework factory project.
When that one completes, the Eschaton shall surely be immanentized.

Re:Shenguang Laser Project

[rasmusbr]

The article refers to it as Shenguang Laser Project for Inertial Confinement Fusion, which may give a clue about what it's primarily for. It's apparently the Chinese equivalent of USA's National Ignition Facility.

test for free enterprise

[duckintheface]

Since WW2, the US has had a huge lead in science and tech, in part due to the lack of competition from countries that were severely damaged by the war. China is the second largest economy in the world and is the first "command economy" to actually offer competition in innovation to the US. US companies have long argued that the free market was the best way to produce cutting edge innovation. Aside from the defense arena, that is how most tech has been developed.... without an overarching central plan. Now US tech faces a concerted, planned, and nationally funded challenge from China. If the MLP innitiatives are successful in moving China ahead of the US in the targeted areas of research, it will be the end of the hands-off approach of the US government.

Re:test for free enterprise

[SuricouRaven]

It's never so simple. The US claims to be a free market, but in reality the government extensively subsidizes some industries and penalizes others, and is the single largest purchaser in the country. China claims to be a communist success story, but in reality the government long ago realized that it isn't practical to command an entire economy and turned to the free market to set prices and determine manufacture of most goods - it is the private sector that forms the mighty Chinese manufacturing base, not the government.

They really aren't as far apart as many want to believe.

Re:test for free enterprise

[ebno-10db]

China is the second largest economy in the world and is the first "command economy" to actually offer competition in innovation to the US.

The first? Better check out which country put the first satellite into orbit and the first man into space, and which country had the first ballistic missiles and jet aircraft.

Re:test for free enterprise

[Khashishi]

The Soviets offered some real competition back in the day.

Re:test for free enterprise

[duckintheface]

SuricouRaven, you are correct that China has turned to free enterprise at the micro level to set prices and allocate resources. No argument there. But China still has a command economy at the macro level, setting overall goals and choosing winners and losers in the marketplace. A recent example is that the Chinese government has forced all the rare earth mining companies in the country to join a government consortium which controls access at the source. This is part of a plan to make China pre-eminent in high-tech manufacturing using rare earths. I'm saying that China has a plan. The US has no industrial or innovation plan. So we will see which system works better. If US companies focus on short term profit instead of long term innovation, I think this will be the last time they do that. The US government will step in to secure our future.

Re:test for free enterprise

[TWiTfan]

they were sacrificing everything else in their country to pay for the military

Sounds familiar.

Hope one of those megaprojects is to clean the air

[JoeyRox]

All that great technology and wealth is meaningless if you live in a toxic environment.

And you think it will be China?

[Anonymous Coward]

You so funny. Let's jot down a quick list of things that will likely cripple China within the next 20 years.

- Slowing economy
- Massive population
- The food shortage of the century
- Fresh water
- Municipal incompetence
- Gross amounts of industrial pollution

And those are just broad points. China's government is so corrupt that it's highly unlikely it will actually serve the people in any measurable manner.

Re:And you think it will be China?

[TWiTfan]

What makes you think they won't just take everyone else's food, money, and water?

Re:And you think it will be China?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting times ahead for China. Their govt will likely collapse within the next decade.
Most experts agree that without at least a 10% on year growth civil unrest will become unsustainable. There just won't be enough jobs and resources and money to cover the gross inefficiency and lack of real governing ability their form of government affords. (A corrupt dictatorship that pays favor to a privileged few) Most Chinese are aware of the problems in their country. They say they put up with it for the "Greater good", but we all know what happens when there are no jobs and no food to feed your family. .. China's economy has already slowed to less than 10% growth. Change is inevitable, but what kind of change is uncertain.

Re:I hope China crushes the US and the EU

[bill_mcgonigle]

Is the solution to one group thinking it can "crush" the others having another group "crush" the first, or everybody learning to work with each other, regardless of which plot of land they happened to be born on?

And the part that should scare most of you....

[Anonymous Coward]

Is what happens if china funds and develops fusion technology in the next two decades, and using it's plethora of foreign owned companies, patents/trade secrets the technology, thus giving them 30 years of control over cheap ubiquitous energy, while the rest of us fight over the ever dwindling scraps of fossil fuel?

Hell, they might be able to keep it all in-country and just provide energy services from their borders at just cheap enough to bankrupt the competition rates.

Re:Lost in translation?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Ensuring a whole generation of males is rendered incompatible with females.

Male Linuxification Project?

Say what you will

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

But while Western governments twiddle their thumbs in their respective senates or congress figuring out how to recover from a devastating decline in the economy with a mounting ecological deficit and can't do anything without gauging public opinion from the largely idiot masses when it comes to any kind of "super-project", China will most likely solve most of the world's problems in energy and climate change.

Surprisingly the country with past human right violations may actually save humanity, while countries that promote the idea they protect human rights sit and let the world rot while their ineffective politicians quibble in their grand ballrooms of democracy.

Of course if China's economy collapses under the weight and pressure of these super-projects, the world is fucked.

The list

[CODiNE]

The 13 published Megaprojects.

  Core electronic components, high-end general use chips and basic software products
  Large-scale integrated circuit manufacturing equipment and techniques
  New generation broadband wireless mobile communication networks
  Advanced numeric-controlled machinery and basic manufacturing technology
  Large-scale oil and gas exploration
  Large advanced nuclear reactors
  Water pollution control and treatment
  Breeding new varieties of genetically modified organisms
  Pharmaceutical innovation and development
  Control and treatment of AIDS, hepatitis, and other major diseases
  Large aircraft
  High-definition earth observation system
  Manned spaceflight and lunar probe programs