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How Does Chinese Tech Stack Up Against American Tech?

The Economist: China's tech leaders love visiting California, and invest there, but are no longer awed by it [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. By market value the Middle Kingdom's giants, Alibaba and Tencent, are in the same league as Alphabet and Facebook. New stars may float their shares in 2018-19, including Didi Chuxing (taxi rides), Ant Financial (payments) and Lufax (wealth management). China's e-commerce sales are double America's and the Chinese send 11 times more money by mobile phones than Americans, who still scribble cheques.

The venture-capital (VC) industry is booming. American visitors return from Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen blown away by the entrepreneurial work ethic. Last year the government decreed that China would lead globally in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. The plan covers a startlingly vast range of activities, including developing smart cities and autonomous cars and setting global tech standards. Like Japanese industry in the 1960s, private Chinese firms take this "administrative guidance" seriously.

173 comments

  1. Who cares? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    None of that crap is "tech". e-commerce? Taxi rides? That isn't tech. And AI isn't real, so just stop.

    1. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      who cares? 1 billion internet users in china do. things happen whether you care or not. things happen and they matter, whether you care or not.

    2. Re:Who cares? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Really? 1 billion internet users in China cares how Chinese tech stacks up to American tech? Who knew?

    3. Re:Who cares? by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

      Hu cares.

      --
      Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    4. Re:Who cares? by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      What would you call an algorithm that can figure out solutions on it's own? Self-modifying? Learning? Automated?

    5. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'd call it a finite state machine that is programmed to extrapolate data from a specified data type.

    6. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, China had a firewall in place so thise startups were not mangled by the American equivalents early. As stated they are not really tech, but will ensure creaming off of easy foxex is difficult for a non Chinese trader.
      12 years later, no-one is offering to undercut the 3%+ charged by Paypal or Visa. WTF!

    7. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure your products just fly off the shelves.

    8. Re:Who cares? by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      None of that crap is "tech". e-commerce? Taxi rides? That isn't tech. And AI isn't real, so just stop.

      Yea no shit. It's like saying you publish literature when you print vacuum cleaner advertisements. Then having an industry award ceremony about all the great copy your business has printed for other businesses.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    9. Re:Who cares? by myid · · Score: 1

      Ha! That reminds me of the Johnny Carson skit, where he plays Pres. Reagan:

      (to Reagan) Mr. President, Hu's on the phone.
      Reagan: Well, now, Jim, I don't know. Who's on the phone?
      Baker: That is correct.
      Reagan: What's correct?
      Baker: No, he's your Secretary of the Interior.
      Reagan: Now Jim, let's just start all over here, very quietly. Just tell me,
      Jim, who is on the phone?
      Baker: Hu is on the phone.

    10. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha! AI isn't real? AI and Manufacturing is the greatest skill combination and China has mastered both domains. In 30 years China can manufacture AI soldiers designed to eliminate threats while we will still be denying climate change and evolution and saying AI is not sentient so isn't real.

    11. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      haha, butt hurt much. It's as tech as anything else. Or what, do you think serving millions of people at the same time is easy? Also the *best* app for replacing text in photos with a translation without the text looking out of place is from China.

    12. Re:Who cares? by leed_25 · · Score: 1

      I'll tell you who cares: anyone who wants 1 billion customers, that's who. Still not tech, though.

    13. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just a rip off of Abbott and Costello's "who's on first"

    14. Re:Who cares? by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 1

      12 years later, no-one is offering to undercut the 3%+ charged by Paypal or Visa. WTF!

      I guess you are not familiar with the Chinese WeChat, or the TransferWise service.

    15. Re: Who cares? by orlanz · · Score: 1

      If the use case and knowledge domains were wide enough, that would be a cornerstone of AI... but we don't even have those yet.

      The very best "AI" we have are a rudimentary version of those that basically selects a forecast curve on a very large dataset... and then come up with excuses for wrong answers that the dataset wasn't large enough.

      I am not saying these things are worthless, far from it, they are highly useful in providing insights to levels of planning and decision making that has never existed in our history... but it's a really long stretch to call them AI. It's like saying basic human intelligence is fully formed at the point of conception...

      Our most advanced "AI" are at the kernels of their development. I love the ones that can learn to walk/hop, or build bridges. That I find to be more advanced in AI terms than IBM Watson... but their use case is nonexistent because their domain of knowledge is pinpoint size.

    16. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah right, like the terracotta army, frozen for all time...

    17. Re: Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it is political comedy and homage to one of the most famous comedy sketches in history.

    18. Re: Who cares? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      I still remember when Bayesian filtering spam was *the* thing.

    19. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      China's biggest improvement has been the speed in which it can implement the technology stolen from others. And since China still is a country with no freedom of the press or any other freedoms taking for granted by others. All the information nd press releases about the state of their technology industries is filtered through government censors. Not including the huge bribes that keep the Chinese economy working the Chinese government imposes a 40% tax rate on every corporation operating in the country. The tax rate also comes along with a fulltime government censor who monitors the business operations. However the weird thing I have found is that the Chinese people are some of the most friendliest and accommodating people I run into on my 30+ years of international travel. A stronger Chinese-US alliance would be a good thing. China is the only country the US has never invaded or occupied. China may covert US technology but they are no more interested in fighting the US than the US is interested in fighting them. The animosity voiced in what passes for today's news outlets is exaggerated. The US and China militaries have exchanged officers and the US even had the Chinese Naval personnel come aboard an aircraft carrier to watch and study active carrier operations. China has 1.5 air craft carriers but lack the experience the US has achieved over 50 years of carrier operations. And most importantly the rulers of China know how fragile their rule would be if over a billion Chinese citizens all decided they wanted a change. The Communist Party has been riding that particular tiger for years and it is not getting any easier. The world will never really understand China until press freedoms and unrestricted media publishers can operate without government censors and without the tight restrictions and government surveillance. The people in the US have no idea what real government surveillance and how what a society with no civil rights really looks like. And these same US citizens are willing to believe everything about anything coming from the Chinese government mouth pieces. China releases economic information and claims of technology advances and are believed without a doubt from the current crop of social morons who all seem to expect the world to cater to their silly nonsense their inflated entitlement syndrome.

    20. Re: Who cares? by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

      ok, sure, "forecast curve". But there are multiple variables allowing forecasts for things like "where should I move rook?" and "should this person go get screened for cancer?" and "Is this a picture of a cow?" and the datasets seem large enough to beat the best players in Chess and Go, predict cancer, and identify objects. Sooooooo.... no excuses, they're being used today for real effect.

      And, what about DeepMind Alpha? The thing they made right after DeepMind won big at Go. It doesn't need any dataset, it makes it's own, and beat the previous DeepMind after a rather short amount of learning.

      because their domain of knowledge is pinpoint size.

      Sure. Nearly all of them have limited scope. But many of them have a scope large enough to give them a hell of a utility. Especially the ones that do the bulk of certain office-worker jobs. They're coming for the paralegals.

      I don't want to oversell it though. AI is a useful tool. We don't have any sort of "general intelligence" yet. But to deny that these thing learns and teach themselves.... and that they're not intelligent.... just seems deluded. Like wtf is intelligence if not this?

  2. Slow down that thought train by DaMattster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is only considering one singular comparison. This little story is trying to make China look more progressive and nothing could be further from the truth. If you speak out against the Chinese Communist Oligarchy, you and your entire family are subject to brutal imprisonment, labor, and re-education camps. Chinese economic reforms are only there to pacify and mollify the people and to distract them from getting together in large groups espousing any form of dissent. Dissent in China not only punishes the offender, but punishes his or her family. Once a family has a member that has been branded as a dissenter, that branding effects future generations of the family. Anyone whom thinks that China is more advanced than we are is severely ill-informed.

    1. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      lol. technology advancement != progressiveness or whatever that word means.
      chill. go visit china. they are moving fast in tech, that's all this article is implying.

    2. Re:Slow down that thought train by DaMattster · · Score: 0, Redundant

      lol. technology advancement != progressiveness or whatever that word means. chill. go visit china. they are moving fast in tech, that's all this article is implying.

      I don't want to give them any credit whatsoever for technology advancement. Technology advancement without freedom to dissent is meaningless.

    3. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      what are you talking about? this article IS NOT about human rights. It is NOT.
      it is talking about tech. yes. the murderous nazis invented rocket propulsion, and the murderous soviets launched the first satellite into space.
      progressiveness is NOT necessary for advancement in tech. this article is talking about TECH. do you understand the difference?

    4. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      then you are a retard, by ignoring such advancements you allow the other kind of suppression to flourish, only by bringing them into the world so they can see and reap the benefits of being more open will the human rights problem ever be fixed. Not that most of the west has any right to speak on human rights as the US is still one of the worst offenders with that too.

    5. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What really scares me is that as China gets wealthier and more powerful is that they'll begin to export their political model around the world. This could be in the form of selling/giving away surveillance tech or military hardware, undermining democracies with fake news and buying up their media or outright military invasion. Regardless of which way it happens i'm increasingly worried about our ability to stop it.

    6. Re: Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China's policy is to provide labour and hardware for megaprojects.

      Works much better for both them, and the countries they assist than the US model of handing out cash.

    7. Re: Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      some Israeli tech companies are about as amoral as they come.

      Arent the cell phone stinger systems made in Israel? Isnt the company that says it can bust the encryption on Iphones from Israel? isnt one of the better dpi (deep packet inspection) and other internet inspection hardware providers from Israel?

    8. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Waa waaa waaa waaa - America.

      Nothing you says changes or even really challenges what was discussed in the article.

    9. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what are you talking about? this article IS NOT about human rights. It is NOT.

      I read this in Tommy Wiseau's voice.

    10. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      as the US is still one of the worst offenders with that too.

      Maybe americans don't want to pay 50% income and 25% vat in order to pay for your ever expanding list of government 'human rights.'

      not torturing prisoners, holding them without trial or bombing civilians is hardly a huge added expense. regardless it is the hypocrisy that is the issue. don't whine about rights violations when you have your foot on the necks of others.

    11. Re:Slow down that thought train by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A lot of people believe in the China Model. There will never be a Trump in China, and that alone has a lot of endorsement. The Chinese government need not waste its time in friction when it can be turned into momentum. No endless chatter on news shows or fake news memos issued by political partisans in Congress. Instead, China makes a decision, and then *does* it. That has a lot of attraction as a way forward to the future. Heck, the New York Times itself publicly admired the China Model and did not retract or apologize for the story.

      America never really was a "Global Force for Good" in my lifetime (born after 1945). I've experienced the US as being one of the most expansionist powers in modern history that refused to sign most human rights treaties, isn't a party to the International Criminal Court, all too willing to cozy up to dictators and in a state of perpetual war.

      The faux "Pax Americana" brought us unprovoked wars, illegal coups, regime changes, shock and awe, ultra-right wing or jihadi proxy armies, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, agent orange, CIA backed mujahideen, death squads, torture, assassinations, extraordinary renditions, black sites, Guantanamo, drone wars, big brother and the surveillance state, etc.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    12. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am in China now and while there is a lot of tech, most of it is barely evolutionary. In the elevator they use a LCD projector to show ads on the closed doors. Tech? Yes. But not revolutionary. Just another way to to try and scrape a few kwai together. In the US that projector would be gone in a day. But the culture and constant monitoring (something the west will not tolerate, even though it is tracked anyway) means that these little projectors are safe from theft, also lowering the the cost of business.

      Until the wealth gap is closed and there is a real middle class none of this tech is meaningful. Like phone payments. It is in the US but so what, we use debit cards. And the payments are small scale most of the time.. because there is not a lot of free cash for the bottom 2/3rds of society.

    13. Re:Slow down that thought train by larryjoe · · Score: 3, Interesting

      A lot of people believe in the China Model. There will never be a Trump in China, and that alone has a lot of endorsement

      I strongly believe that the most effective and efficient form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. China has effectively the latter and as long as it can grasp onto the former, it can do tremendous things. However, past history in China and indeed in all countries over all time has shown that the grasp on benevolence in leadership is fleeting. The emergence of a Trump and worse in China, the US, and elsewhere is a near certainty. In the US, we can get rid or at least wait out our Trumps in just a few years and with nonviolent elections. That's not the case in China, Russia, North Korea, etc. There, we have seen in our own lifetimes that the passage of non-benevolent leadership in these totalitarian regimes requires the passage of decades and millions of lives.

      For all its many faults, I vastly prefer the US system of systematic inefficiency over the benevolently unstable Chinese system.

    14. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a fucking retard if you think every government on the planet is not doing this, or the local equivalent.

      The reason you don't know about it is few countries have the freedoms of the press and speech to get away with it.

      Fucking liberal shit bags, just because the faggots at CNN don't report it means it doesn't exist???

    15. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because every international 'agreement' would subject Americans to be stripped of their rights, like an protections from the police, a right to a lawyer, cannot be held without charges.

      So yeah, we SHOULDN'T sign anything that takes away the RIGHTS of an American granted by the Constitution.

      Feel free to emmigrate to any country you like.

    16. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Civilians have been bombed by every combatant in every conflict since the beginning of warfare

    17. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The nazis did not invent rocket propulsion.
      The first solid fuel rockets were from China,
      and the first liquid fuel rockets was from Goddard in America in the 1915-1920.

    18. Re: Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are spot on.
      It is about China helping china and not the other nations.
      Interestingly, that is the exact model that America did back in the 60s and 70s.

    19. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >America never really was a "Global Force for Good" in my lifetime (born after 1945). I've experienced the US as being one of the most expansionist powers in modern history that refused to sign most human rights treaties, isn't a party to the International Criminal Court, all too willing to cozy up to dictators and in a state of perpetual war

      Modern history is roughly 500 years and America has been around less than half of that. You mean to say modern era. To say America is one of the most expansionist powers is completely ridiculous in that it's borders haven't changed in the modern era.

      The last 70 years of American global strategy has been to prevent another World War from happening. It does that through inciting democratic and capitalistic reforms. The basic idea being, if people are working together they are enriching each other. We have more to gain working together than fighting against each other. Proof? The modern era is the most peaceful time in history, despite what you hear and read on how horrible everything is.

    20. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Only an American could think every other country is just as evil and happy to torture people. Most first world countries don't even have the death penalty anymore, one day the US will move into the 20th century and eventually catch up. But I see a lot of pain first as they fall further and further behind the rest of the world.

    21. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Technology advancement without freedom to dissent is meaningless.

      Dude you just Freudian Slipped unknowingly conceded China has the advance technology...I don't think anybody much care if you find their advanced technology meaningless...

    22. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For all its many faults, I vastly prefer the US system of systematic inefficiency over the benevolently unstable Chinese system.

      murder rate per 100,000:
      USA=4.88
      China 0.74

      Over "decades", say 50 years, Americans would murder about one million more of its own people than China (if China were the same population as the US). You're partly correct about the "millions of lives" part.

      This just in, thriving democracy India murder rate=3.21

      murder rate

    23. Re:Slow down that thought train by larryjoe · · Score: 3

      For all its many faults, I vastly prefer the US system of systematic inefficiency over the benevolently unstable Chinese system.

      murder rate per 100,000:
      USA=4.88
      China 0.74

      Over "decades", say 50 years, Americans would murder about one million more of its own people than China (if China were the same population as the US). You're partly correct about the "millions of lives" part.

      This just in, thriving democracy India murder rate=3.21

      murder rate

      Yes, the US and the US system have many faults, many more than just the murder rate. However, looking at just the per capita murder rate is just one way to look at the issue. While the Chinese system may have a lower per capita murder rate, it has a higher capital punishment rate and higher hard labor punishment rate. More significantly, many of those Chinese prison sentences and deaths are based on defying the government. Over the last half century, it also has a much, much higher genocide rate that swamps any murder numbers of any kind. As an America who values freedom of speech and conscience and the right to directly criticize the government, I would probably be killed in China. So, yes, I vastly prefer the US system.

    24. Re:Slow down that thought train by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

      The US government is a serial warmonger. China hasn't started even a single war in decades. You think people haven't noticed that? You think Libya or Syria enjoys being how it is? Or Iraq?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    25. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You idiot!

      When they murder someone in China, nobody knows about it.

    26. Re: Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck Israel.

    27. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      After all the things you listed and china still has had a much bigger body count during the same time. also, China has had leaders vastly more incompetent than trump already, who have killed millions of their own people, and will no doubt have more in the future. Not to mention, anyone is free to criticize trump, and will face no secret police jail or worse, don't try doing the same in China. Lastly, Trump is impeachable, when the Chinese get corrupt and incompetent leaders, they're stuck with them until they die, or some other despot has them "removed."

    28. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ask the Tibetans about that. Talk about Taiwan at your own peril. What is going on in the South China Sea at this very moment? The Chinese government is evil.

    29. Re:Slow down that thought train by cats-paw · · Score: 1

      is a benevolent dictatorship. China has effectively the latter you've got a pretty screwed up definition of benevolent. why don't you move to China, criticize the government openly and see how that works out for you.

      --
      Absolute statements are never true
    30. Re:Slow down that thought train by larryjoe · · Score: 1

      is a benevolent dictatorship. China has effectively the latter

      you've got a pretty screwed up definition of benevolent.
      why don't you move to China, criticize the government openly and see how that works out for you.

      I think you need to reread what I wrote. "Latter" refers to just the dictatorship part.

    31. Re:Slow down that thought train by Whibla · · Score: 1

      To say America is one of the most expansionist powers is completely ridiculous in that it's borders haven't changed in the modern era.

      There are many ways to be expansionist other than simple territorial expansion.

      The last 70 years of American global strategy has been to prevent another World War from happening. It does that through inciting democratic and capitalistic reforms.

      The last 70 years of US global strategy has been enforcing, with extreme prejudice if necessary, it's hegemonic dominance and, in the last 40, exporting it's brand of neo-liberal free market capitalism. As for inciting capitalist reforms... Inciting? That has to be the best euphemism I've heard this year!

      Let's look at a bit of recent history. In 2003 the US (and the UK) invaded Iraq. In the first few months of the occupation that followed their victory Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, issued Order 39 which essentially scrapped laws limiting foreign ownership of Iraqi companies as well as repealing requirements to reinvest profits within the country. He also slashed the top rate of income tax from 45% to 15%. Dozens of major companies were privatised within the following few months - and you can guess that the majority of the buyers were not Iraqi citizens or companies.

      So, to sum up, Bush and Blair (or the US and the UK if you prefer not to get personal) illegally, according to the UN at least, invaded a sovereign nation on false pretenses and then proceeded to undemocratically alter its laws enabling the transfer of wealth from that country to US and UK companies.

      And you call it inciting.

      The basic idea being, if people are working together they are enriching each other. We have more to gain working together than fighting against each other.

      That sounds like a great idea. So how about we do that rather than invading other countries?

      Proof? The modern era is the most peaceful time in history, despite what you hear and read on how horrible everything is.

      I guess you don't live in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Syria, to name but a few.

    32. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While the Chinese system may have a lower per capita murder rate, it has a higher capital punishment rate

      Dude you just argued against yourself, America with its HIGHER murder rate has a LOWER capital punishment rate than China. Is this the "systematic inefficiency" you speak of?

      it also has a much, much higher genocide rate that swamps any murder numbers of any kind

      genocide

      Literally 50% of the article refer to western nation genocides, with ONE PARAGRAPH in the entire article referring to China.
      Do you really want to play the genocide card?

      As an America who values freedom of speech and conscience and the right to directly criticize the government

      I give you that, however, ttsai member, please list your SSN in all your future posts to prove America has "freedom of speech" (you're not afraid are you?).

    33. Re:Slow down that thought train by larryjoe · · Score: 1

      While the Chinese system may have a lower per capita murder rate, it has a higher capital punishment rate

      Dude you just argued against yourself, America with its HIGHER murder rate has a LOWER capital punishment rate than China. Is this the "systematic inefficiency" you speak of?

      Uhh ... no .... The US systematic inefficiency is largely based on checks and balances, leading to the inability of any one person or party to control unilaterally control any aspect of law or society. I don't understand your implication of a logical inconsistency between the per capital murder and capital punishment rates in the US and China. Perhaps you can lay out your logic for this idea.

      it also has a much, much higher genocide rate that swamps any murder numbers of any kind

      genocide

      Literally 50% of the article refer to western nation genocides, with ONE PARAGRAPH in the entire article referring to China.
      Do you really want to play the genocide card?

      And yet, the death toll attributed to Mao swamp all the other genocides put together. I suppose there a semantic argument against classifying Mao's deaths as genocide, but I don't think that really matters to the 15 to 55 millions who died under Mao. In any case, I would still much prefer the US system to the Chinese system.

      As an America who values freedom of speech and conscience and the right to directly criticize the government

      I give you that, however, ttsai member, please list your SSN in all your future posts to prove America has "freedom of speech" (you're not afraid are you?).

      Hmm, this must be a Chinese view of freedom of speech, i.e., you must say what I want you to say. In the free world, freedom of speech means that I get to say what I want to say when I want to say it, and I get to not say what I don't want to say. It isn't a surprise that this concept is foreign to the Chinese system.

    34. Re:Slow down that thought train by epine · · Score: 1

      Chinese economic reforms are only there to pacify and mollify the people and to distract them from getting together in large groups espousing any form of dissent.

      I'm the world's only onlyologist, and you just tripped my wire.

      You do realize that the word "only" sets up a logical converse: that if public mollification weren't necessary, the Chinese authorities wouldn't give a sweet fuck all about any of those filthy, wealth-generating economic reforms. I've met one or two Chinese people, and as a group—almost to the same degree as Americans given half a chance—they do give a sweet fuck all about wealth creation.

      One could, perhaps, say that political reforms are pried out of the Chinese oligarchy's icy cold, nearly dead hands without wearing a lemon meringue pie, self-applied, though even that sentiment would be slightly borderline.

    35. Re:Slow down that thought train by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      I think China has moved away from the benevolent dictatorship phase ever since Hu Jingtao got thrown out. Xi is... well... not benevolent. I would say that. So far, he's only been consolidating power, but then again, so did Stalin in his early governments. This can be pretty scary, even if we are still in the embers of the Chinese 'NEP' right now.

    36. Re:Slow down that thought train by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Member ttsai, you didn't include you SSN in your post, looks like you're just paying lip service to your so called "freedom of speech".
      You've been outed as a hypocrite.

      I don't understand your implication of a logical inconsistency between the per capital murder and capital punishment rates in the US and China. Perhaps you can lay out your logic for this idea.

      You've been outed as an idiot.

      I suppose there a semantic argument against classifying Mao's deaths as genocide, but I don't think that really matters to the 15 to 55 millions who died under Mao

      There are a few issues here:
      (1)citation?
      (2)pulling numbers out of your ass. You should have picked 15 OR 55 NOT both. Writing both just proves that you got nothing, and you're just flinging shit hoping something will stick.
      (3)famine=genocide, sure you don't want to include motor vehicle accidents, overdose,...
      Madam you really have nothing do you? Sissy move.
      You've been outed as a bottom feeding shill.

    37. Re:Slow down that thought train by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      There is no single progression line you can put every country on. Different countries do different things. I'm not going to defend the Chinese government's human rights record, but China has been very successful in economic and technological development. It's useful to know how the Chinese do in technology. It's useful to know how they do in human rights. These are two separate subjects.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    38. Re:Slow down that thought train by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      China makes a decision, and then does it. The US tends to make more smaller decisions. In China, if the top people make a smart decision, great. If they make a stupid decision (Great Leap Forward), the country can suffer for a long time. In the US, there's usually somebody making a smart decision, and even in government smart decisions are tested against stupid ones every two years.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. No thanks to Chinese tech by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Ta hell with the idea of social-credit systems.
    Ta hell with mass surveillance of the kind that even the NSA can't dream of in Urumqi.
    Ta hell with body scanners and mass privacy invasion on public transport.

    Thank G-d the West isn't China. We have some pretty scummy governments, but nothing as evil and intrusive as China yet.

    1. Re:No thanks to Chinese tech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ta hell with the idea of social-credit systems.

      Only one star for you.

    2. Re:No thanks to Chinese tech by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Nice anti-government rant, but that ultimately has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

  4. How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's the same shit.

    1. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you've ever worked in technology and actually thought about what you were doing, you'd realize that you're building on the ideas of others.

      If the only thing China were capable of doing is copying US tech, then US tech companies and the US military would have no real worries from Chinese tech espionage. By the time they got the tech working, we'd be onto the next big thing.

      But China is a lot more capable than that. They're a huge country sitting on a huge talent pool with a regime that understands the value of technological research. When they steal US tech secrets they aren't just stealing grist for their mill; they're stealing seed corn.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Call me when they actually invent something disruptive and not just copy and make some incremental improvements. The entire culture is based on conformity and not questioning, not too mention the institutionalized graft at every level of government.

    3. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But China is a lot more capable than that.

      I don't agree. Look at the way that they have organized their society. It's authoritarian, conformist, centrally controlled, a place where independent ideas and free thinking are discouraged and severely punished. Creativity requires safety and freedom to think and experiment without fear of reprisals. Does that sound like Communist China to you? It's difficult to see how the creativity that is nurtured in free societies, like the United States, can ever really take root in China while they continue their brutal crackdowns and tolerate no dissent. American leftists whine that they are oppressed and seem to have a soft spot in their hearts for brutal leftist governments around the world, but really there is no comparison between what goes on in China and life here in America. To suggest a moral equivalence between the two is to speak in error. China will never lead in tech until they reform their society and end repression of their own people. They like to think that they've found the secret sauce to compete with America without conceding the point on freedom, but they are mistaken and will be proven so in the decades to come.

    4. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      All countries tend to do this. US tech didn't spring up out the blue, it was stolen by someone from someone else.

      At least if you insist on using the stolen term. Knowledge is meant to be shared. Human history demonstrates this. It is only within capitalist ideology that we somehow think ideas are owned.

    5. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When they steal US tech secrets

      Surely, you two guys meant to say that the Chinese are infringing our tech secrets, right? I've seen hundreds of explanations here that digital assets cannot be stolen unless the original files are somehow deleted in the process.

    6. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When they steal US tech secrets they aren't just stealing grist for their mill; they're stealing seed corn.

      In that case, Monsanto will put a stop to it shortly.

    7. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      you mean like gunpowder? the compass? paper money? they are leaders in genetic engineering? they are leaders in mass production? they are the leaders in drone development and a 1000 other techs. Your ignorance of Chinese culture is why they have become so dominate, people like you dismiss them at your peril.

    8. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by hey! · · Score: 1

      Of course I'm aware that the word "stolen" in this context isn't the same as someone "stealing" your bike. "Misappropriated" if you prefer, but trying to get the world onboard with your preferred word usage is like trying to nail jello to the wall, even if it's the very best jello.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    9. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Add in Soviet, Russian, EU, Asian tech too. Communism has its loyal party members collecting tech globally.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    10. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Found the wu mao!

      China is cheap meat sacks. Master of mass production? You mean fuck the workers for production goals. Money is WAY more important than a human life in China. Worker loses an arm or eye in your factory? Fire them and hire another. Never fix anything and definitely don't pay the medical costs.

      And modern China is less than 70 years old. Mao destroyed anything of cultural value decades ago. If you're stupid enough to say (or think) that the post Mao China has ANY RELATION to pre-1950s China then you are a cock sucking wu mao faggot.

    11. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Kjella · · Score: 1

      I don't agree. Look at the way that they have organized their society. It's authoritarian, conformist, centrally controlled, a place where independent ideas and free thinking are discouraged and severely punished. Creativity requires safety and freedom to think and experiment without fear of reprisals. Does that sound like Communist China to you?

      China hasn't been communist except in name for quite some time, it's much closer to fascist. No strategic industry makes it big in China without strong ties to the Chinese government, it's why Google and Facebook is big everywhere but China. It's not the inefficient and stagnant economy of Soviet Russia, they're much closer to Hitler's Germany. A regime that almost forced the capitulation of the whole of Europe, if it wasn't for the English channel, if they had pushed forward at Dunkirk, if Turing hadn't broken Enigma, if they didn't redirect the bombing of military targets to destroy London... there's a fair chance Britain would have capitulated and D-day would never have happened. In fact it took the combined might of two future superpowers and a whole bunch of others to bring him down.

      Maybe it's not the best for creativity and innovation. But you should not underestimate the value it has for industrial production and unity. And particularly the latter is important in a state of war, with the advances in medicine most people now expect to die of old age. How many Americans, apart from the few volunteers, are really ready to lay down their lives for the greater good? If you got 1+ billion people ready to sacrifice everything for China well then everyone else has a problem.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    12. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was just pointing out that you can't say something like "illegal filesharing = stealing" here without being "corrected". It's apparently a big deal to understand that merely copying files, even if it's against the law, is not the same as theft or stealing.

      So you have to be consistent when the Chinese are the ones doing it, rather than US college kids.

    13. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Googles and Facebooks failure in china has nothing to do with corruption and everything to do with them not customising their products for the local market, when they finally realised they needed to the local competition was already too strong for them to overcome. This was pure a simple a company strategic fail not a government imposed one.

    14. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      But China is a lot more capable than that.

      Of course they are. The west should know that. We trained them. We put them through our best universities, gave them access to our best labs, and then sent them home on their way when it became clear that science was no longer valued here.

    15. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China hasn't been communist except in name for quite some time, it's much closer to fascist.

      I think we need to wake up and realise that things change over time, as we learn more and adjust to new insights. Even religions and ideologies change over time - what counted for Christianity once, would not be recognised by a modern community, and the attempts at going back to what somebody thinks is the original and 'pure' version invariably fails horribly. The same goes for ideologies - the attempts that were made by the USSR and many others, failed because they started out too naive in their idealism and then resisted any changes and attempts at modernisation. China arguably managed, eventually, to adjust their version of socialism, as did the Scandinavian countries to some extent.

      No strategic industry makes it big in China without strong ties to the Chinese government, it's why Google and Facebook is big everywhere but China. It's not the inefficient and stagnant economy of Soviet Russia, they're much closer to Hitler's Germany. A regime that almost forced the capitulation of the whole of Europe, if it wasn't for the English channel, if they had pushed forward at Dunkirk, if Turing hadn't broken Enigma, if they didn't redirect the bombing of military targets to destroy London... there's a fair chance Britain would have capitulated and D-day would never have happened. In fact it took the combined might of two future superpowers and a whole bunch of others to bring him down.

      This is nothing more than scaremongering. I don't deny that there are aspects of China that can be criticised, but we can't afford to muddle our heads with exaggerations and fantasies - not if we want to have a constructive dialogue about anything. The news media in the West always go on about human rights abuses and lack of democracy, and I think the Chinese government do understand what we are talking about; and I don't think they are miles away from agreeing to many of those things, but when talking about human rights, we aren't actually on the moral high ground either, are we? Yeah, we have "freedom of speech", but it is being manipulated and abused in ways that harm us all. And talking for or against democracy without actually knowing what it is and how to make it work according to spec, is simply stupid; democracy can not work, if the voter don't understand the issues or intend to follow the rules of the game - and it can't work if the electorate can be manipulated easily, for example through misinformation hiding behind so-called freedom of speech. Everone can see this, and that is one very good reason the Chinese government don't want American style democracy - but they are not against the idea.

      Maybe it's not the best for creativity and innovation. But you should not underestimate the value it has for industrial production and unity. And particularly the latter is important in a state of war, with the advances in medicine most people now expect to die of old age. How many Americans, apart from the few volunteers, are really ready to lay down their lives for the greater good? If you got 1+ billion people ready to sacrifice everything for China well then everyone else has a problem.

      Look, the Chinese are people - just people. They are not in general fanatically devoted to any wild-eyed ideological fantasy, they just want to live well etc, like I suspect most Americans do. They do have the advantage of being immensely hard working and motivated - for now. Americans, on the other hand once had this immense pioneering spirit that made it possible for the first settlers to establish themselves in a sometimes very difficult land; look how that has changed, though. The Chinese will change too, over time, and become more like us, or rather, we will all move towards some middle ground. We will become more like the Chinese and they will become more like us. It will be good.

    16. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not the inefficient and stagnant economy of Soviet Russia, they're much closer to Hitler's Germany.

      Actually comparing China to Hitler's germany is an interesting point in this discussion, as much of USA's post-war success was in big part due to Hitler's activities and the scientific work done in Germany.

      See for example Operation Paperclip and hundreds of German scientists moving to the US after the war, kick-starting the space program with advanced rocketry knowledge. Or pre-war activities against the Jews, resulting for example with one Albert Einstein moving to US, where he directly had a big contribution on Roosevelt's decision on starting the Manhattan project.

    17. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They aren't copying files for their own amusement. They are doing so for profit. They take proprietary information and use it for their own need to gain an advantage. If they were published and available for a license, your statement would track. But they are taking ideas that aren't supposed to be publicly available. That is theft. Where as a film or CD is publicly available to anyone for a modest license fee.

      I understand where you are coming from. But one needs to delineate artistic works for mass consumption from research and development. Totally different sets of ideas. Even if they can both be expressed as a computer file.

      If I download Harry Potter and read it, I don't consider that theft. If I sell it to someone else, that is theft of royalties. If I steal a copy before it is published, that is also theft. The last case is what the Chinese are doing. Then they write their own Harry Potter based on the not yet published original and flood the market at half the price before the author can realize a profit at all. Much worse. That is China.

    18. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One problem with your nazi-chinese parallel is that China, at least compared to US, is not expansionist.

      Another problem is that they don't ignore the "non arian science" as nazis did.

      Yet another problem is that contrary to the US, China does not support regimes with nazi nostalgia, as Ukraine and Croatia.

      There are other problems.

    19. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "We put them through our best universities, gave them access to our best labs" - well, if you had someone with comparable talents, and at comparable price, I am sure that you would put them there. But you don't have enough such people.

    20. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Not just Einstein. Much more important than him would be Enrico Fermi who also had a Jewish wife and fled Fascist Italy as a result.

    21. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      It's not the inefficient and stagnant economy of Soviet Russia, they're much closer to Hitler's Germany. A regime that almost forced the capitulation of the whole of Europe, if it wasn't for the English channel, if they had pushed forward at Dunkirk, if Turing hadn't broken Enigma, if they didn't redirect the bombing of military targets to destroy London... there's a fair chance Britain would have capitulated and D-day would never have happened. In fact it took the combined might of two future superpowers and a whole bunch of others to bring him down.

      You're assuming that Britain would have developed the same way without the English Channel. With it, there was no way they were going to invade Britain successfully. Dunkirk was a complicated decision, and even if the Germans had pushed on (and weakened the June 1940 campaign in France) it would only have limited Britain's offensive capability. Breaking Enigma was useful, but not essential. Despite how it looked at the time, the Battle of the Atlantic was never as close as some people think. If the Luftwaffe had continued bombing airfields, the RAF would have pulled north. It wouldn't have been pleasant for the people of southern England, but it would have kept the RAF in being. Britain was in it to win eventually, and Churchill merely confirmed that choice.

      You do realize that the "inefficient and stagnant economy" of the Soviet Union was instrumental in defeating the German army, right? It provided weapons of all sorts to go to the front, and supported the most basic needs of the civilians. When Stalin said "Quantity has a quality all his own", he wasn't just talking about the manpower of the Red Army, but its equipment.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    22. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The Chinese are discovering our tech secrets and infringing on our tech IP Better?

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    23. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

      But they are becoming expansionist: Moves into Africa,"Islands" being created in the ocean, claims of entire swaths of that ocean.
      and we can't forget Tibet...

    24. Re:How does stolen US tech compare to US tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't matter that China does not foster free thought. They will just farm whatever useful tech the democracies introduce and combine it with cheap mass production.

  5. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everything is happening in Canada now.

  6. "American" tech is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    504 Gateway Time-out

    nginx

  7. What's in California? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mean really, Uber - calling a CAB company a tech company?
    Or calling advertising companies tech companies? Seriously?! Calling Google, facebook and Yahoo! tech companies?! Really?

    Or setting up a server farm and calling it the "cloud" and all of a sudden you're a tech company?

    I'm underwhelmed by California's crap too.

    1. Re:What's in California? by HeckRuler · · Score: 2

      Google is making self-driving cars... which is hot right now.

      And Facebook was at the heart of social media... which was hot back in.... 2006?

      Yahoo was hot back when searching the Internet was a big deal. Back in the 90's.

      Cloud computing peaked around 2011. But, YES, if you set up a company revolving around self-driving cars, cloud computing, social media, or even search, you are a tech company. The field itself isn't new. But unless you bring something new to the table, you're not going to do very well. This might shock you, but people are still research and advancing the technology of internal combustion engines and making them more efficient, despite being around for... what? A century? That's still tech. And if you made a company dedicated to improving the technology of that old-ass invention, you'd have yourself a tech company.

      I think you might be expecting a revolutionary game changer with every new business. We're living in the middle of a technological singularity. Just like the industrial revolution, it's coming in waves. We've got computers, personal computers, the Internet, hand-held computers, and I think artificial intelligence will be another one, if it's not already. But there are still people working on building better computers. It's still a pretty new field, all things considered in the broader scheme of "the economy".

  8. there weak IP laws let them copy all of our good s by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 0

    there weak IP laws let them copy all of our good stuff and now they getting very good at knock offs.

  9. Huawei should we care? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    USPTO FTW!

  10. Nitpick by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Since the summary and article specifically refer to Americans... we write checks, not “scribble cheques”.

    (And I can’t remember the last time I actually wrote a check, although I do have a checkbook - I use my debit card, and pay bills via my bank’s online bill pay)

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Nitpick by DaMattster · · Score: 1

      Since the summary and article specifically refer to Americans... we write checks, not “scribble cheques”.

      (And I can’t remember the last time I actually wrote a check, although I do have a checkbook - I use my debit card, and pay bills via my bank’s online bill pay)

      It's just another poorly written Op/Ed article that shows just how little the author understands how the world really works. This author really exemplifies the old saying that, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one." And, I just proved my own point. Feel free to have a laugh at my expense.

    2. Re:Nitpick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, it's not an op-ed, it's a political screed, just tailored to a specific audience. The propaganda machine never sleeps, never concerns itself with truth, and always tries to push its point.

    3. Re: Nitpick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Written by a stupid Millennial no doubt.

  11. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LEARN THEIR FROM THERE and do so before you copy my point as if you came up with it 5 minutes later.

  12. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    it's pretty much how technology spread. why would china start from the beginning in order to catch up? why would they repeat the mistakes others already made. they obviously want to catch up to the west ASAP. even netwon said that he was standing on the shoulder of giants. don't be angry, be better.

  13. Different patent laws larger population by MakerDusk · · Score: 1

    In terms of raw entrepreneurial opportunities, the difference in patent laws makes a huge difference! When you can simply knock off a product from another company there's no more exclusivity: this means competing companies need to improve upon the product design or the manufacturing process to outdo the others. And that I'd just scratching the surface...

    Chinese factories have a lot of human workers. Its cheap to do there. In fact, that's why a lot of the world outsources manufacturing to China. All these workers can pass along the ideas + manufacturing processes, choose to operate the factory when its supposed to be shut down for the night, and even come up with ideas of their own. Employees do have good ideas. Someone could point out that changing x on this product would make it better. With human labor, you don't need to spend millions and months retooling an automated factory to adapt.

    The last point I'll bring up is the difference in market size. First off is China itself: its population is far greater than the US, therefore more people will be using tech based services as they roll out. This is needed in terms of ease of access due to a higher population density (that chique little store isn't going to fit 50 shoppers per hour, let alone 10000 per hour), and just outright volume. After that, don't forget that China is the primary source of almost everything for the developed world.

  14. Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    More pee in your coke, and fentanyl in everything.

    Fuck the Chinks. They only want to raep the west.

    1. Re:Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Send the Marines to Beijing and conquer them. Make them pay tribute, or die. I'm sick of being an incompetent Empire. The USA should go full Rome, Hail Caesar mother fuckers! We have the means, we only lack the will. Use our NATO puppets to do the same to Russia and we will have a new Pax Americana to last a thousand generations. Salve sclave!

      If we wait another 30 years, that chance will be gone and we will be their slaves.

    2. Re:Par for the course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Down troll! Back under the bridge with ye!

  15. Great. They're not there yet but they're learning. by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2

    And fast.

    • Young Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
    • Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
    • Young Doc: Unbelievable.

    I've been ordering from Aliexpress and Chinavasion for a long time. A lot was just knockoffs. Then there was some innovation now they're actually incrementally improving on their designs.

    My current mobile computing device (without cell access) is a Vernee Active. IP68, USBC, 8-cores, dual sim, world (minus the US) capable. For cheap. It's a great phone. It looks like Vernee actually put time and effort into designing their website.

    Chinese "brands" are popping up and they're doing pretty good. And their current customer service is better than Walmart. I've gotten a few bad boards, some with a design flaws, some stuff that broke and I've never had a problem getting a refund or a replacement. They're fighting each other for 5-star reviews and they'll do anything to get you to leave a 5 star review.

    A good industry to have been watching is 3D printers. The product life cycle follows a fairly predictable design cycle.

    1. Someone comes up with a design.
    2. People rush to the design.
    3. Other companies knock off the design.
    4. Someone comes up with a new design.
    5. GOTO 1

    Most of the early growing pains with FOSS were because the chinese simply didn't understand how it worked. I have some soft bricked devices because of bad uBoot with no source. However that's been turning around. Allwinner/sunix has come a long way in the last decade. It's probably as good as Broadcom at this point but not quite Marvell.

    Walmart and Amazon should be afraid because the Chinese have learned how to cut them out.

  16. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's what they said about Japan: they make shitty copies, no, they make good copies, wait, Japanese products are putting ours to shame.

    In actual tech (not these web and app based services TFA calls "tech"), innovation, industrial design and quality control, the Chinese are getting there. I've worked with some first rate original Chinese software, and just this weekend got my hand on an upcoming product designed in China (not a knockoff of a Western device). First class stuff that competes with the top brands here and is actually better in some ways. Their English language manuals are actually useful now, and they are finally waking up to the fact that Times New Roman is a poor choice of font to use on buttons and equipment, and looks especially shitty when printed in gold. The coming years will will continue to see a flood of cheap rubbish coming from China... but the amount of quality Chinese original goods is set to increase. Western designers take note. And you can be sure that China will pay more attention to IP laws when that trend continues.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  17. Re:Great. They're not there yet but they're learni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not yet, they need more marketing to get past the Made in China phobia. But they'll get there. There's too much money in play.

  18. Shopping online & paying on your phone isn't t by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    it's an application of tech. VC firms don't do a whole hell of a lot of actual tech. Return on investment is too slow. A few megacorps still spend a bit on R&D, mostly for the tax write offs. The majority of actual new tech comes out of the University system.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  19. Good luck to the Chinese by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As good Christians I'm sure the average American feels exactly the same way. Love your fellow man and all that.
    Seriously though folks, I have to laugh at the subtle, racist superiority complex bullshit from so many posters.
    Anyone who works in cutting edge high tech in a developed nation finds him or herself surrounded by colleagues from all over the world, especially Asia.
    The slack jawed yokels implying the Chinese are too stupid to innovate, I can only assume, must have grown up in a school with no Asian kids.
    Americans should know better than anyone that most of us don't have a say in the political system we find ourselves living in. Governments evolve and adapt and sometimes die off. Claiming your political system is superior to someone else's is great but totally pointless. Their political system came about by a set of unique events and machinations just like yours. Show me the world's shittiest governments and I'll show you nations that have been manipulated and oppressed from external forces (usually a superpower or two) sometimes going back more than 100 years.

  20. C H I N K Y ' S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    are bad, but not as bad as


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  21. Where is this innovation coming out of China? by An+Ominous+Cow+Erred · · Score: 1, Troll

    I can't think of a single breakthrough in terms of new technology coming out of China (in the modern era). China's entire education system is built around rote copying, to the point where if you teach a class in China you will frequently get the exact same paper handed in by your students. Why? Well if it's the "best paper", and you want your students to be the best, they should learn how to turn in something better that someone else made rather than turning in their own, inferior product.

    In short the cultural institutions of China really suck at *discovery*, because they try to teach everyone to be the best, which means parroting the best. Innovation requires creation, but teaching creation means that, initially, everyone will come up with something inferior, because by definition only one person can ever have the best independent creation at any given moment. The best calculus class I ever saw for Junior High students had the students *INVENT* calculus together in small groups, with the teacher giving only vague hints to spur them along. This is exactly the kind of class that you would never see in China.

    China is becoming better at refinement -- the Japanese comparison is somewhat apt -- but unlike Japan, China lacks any meaningful environment of business ethics. This means that any refinements you make will be immediately stolen by your competitors, so any changes you make need to be small and fast-to-implement such that you can milk your advantage for the X number of weeks it takes for everyone else to copy you. There is zero incentive to produce breakthroughs, but massive incentive to produce something 1% cheaper/faster for a few weeks.

    The breakthroughs that DO come from China are mostly *engineering* breakthroughs rather than theory, and they are based on theories developed in the west that could not be refined due to regulatory reasons. China is on track to become a great innovator in human medicine thanks to non-human medicine developed in the west. The breakthroughs get developed in the west in animal models, but ethics concerns prevent human testing, so instead the *implementation* breakthrough gets to come from China.

    If the Chinese culture suddenly did a 180 and became built around independent thought, I have zero doubt that they would dominate the world in all fields. This is not going to happen.

    Japan got a head start but only made small progress in cultural change -- now they have some innovation but mostly they became the global leader in refinement, and fortunately they have a strong sense of business ethics such that success is not immediately stolen. Their ethics now mean they can't compete on production, so they're forced to compete on quality, which is why Japanese products are the best in the world for just about any product imaginable (not just for electronics, but for produce, furniture, etc.)

    tl;dr Chinese "innovation" doesn't stem from some sort of inventor's spirit, but rather from them having the balls to do what western countries are too afraid/timid to do, and less moral opposition to a take-no-prisoners piratical approach to technological development.

  22. Slashdot ate my post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And it was such a good post too. It started by wishing the Chinese people all the best, and then sarcastically assumed the majority of good Christian Americans would feel the same way.
    It went on pointing out the subtle racism in the American superiority complex, and the irony that the vast majority of cutting edge tech firms are chock-full of foreigners, especially Asians.
    It then suggested that Americans could be more understanding about people living in political system that suck balls, implying that the majority of us have absolutely no power in determining our shitty governments.
    It then challenged the reader to point out the worst governments in the world, claiming that those chosen nations would have a glorious history of being shafted by external entities, especially superpowers.
    I know...what a shame you missing out on reading that gem. You can dream though.

    1. Re:Slashdot ate my post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you firefox.

    2. Re: Slashdot ate my post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Install Lazarus plugin.

  23. A look from the trenches by spiritplumber · · Score: 2

    I am the only US manufacturer of solid state laser cutters, and have to deal with Chinese competition daily. AMA.

    --
    Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
    1. Re:A look from the trenches by aberglas · · Score: 1

      So, what is your experience? Would be good to hear.

      The cynic in me says that we should focus on services. Like banking, law, public service and fashion. Leave actually making things to those that can do it better.

    2. Re:A look from the trenches by spiritplumber · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My experience is that it's tough to compete. Not so much because of costs, but because for example my stuff has to be FDA compliant, and theirs doesn't, and they get away with advertising peak power as constant power (or just "forgetting" an extra zero in the product description) and I don't. I'm against tariffs, per se, but it would be great to see more false advertising enforcement.

      --
      Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
    3. Re:A look from the trenches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      THIS > "more false advertising enforcement"
      Sometimes the China-technobabble is incredible. I see ads for IP Cameras with only NTSC outputs. So much crap to weed through if you want a good deal; sometimes it's just not worth it. Buy an "Made in USA" product and be done.
      Your Time (warranty+countless emails+more shipping+delayed work) = Discount
      Get ur done = Boss happy = Bonus pay.
      China = no bonus + no savings + stress + (maybe) Fired!
      China = more polluted air around the earth. Can't get away from that even on the other side of the world.
      You can keep your China (Eco war) products.

      Trump keep your Money Grubbing Hands off NASA and our Ecosystem!

    4. Re:A look from the trenches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      generally you will find most Made in America products are inferior (*most not all) and nearly always significantly more expensive. If it is an expensive item a little research will let you buy the right product.

    5. Re:A look from the trenches by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Welcome to the real world.
      I can't buy your lasers because the amount of paperwork to order from abroad is shiite.
      And then postage will be added at checkout. Really? I can't get free postage?
      And when it arrives I have to spend another hour or two filling forms from customs.
      And add another two or three hours if the delivery is to my mail forwarding agents.
      QUUAAAAcckkkkhhhhh....!
      USA companies have never heard of them?
      US purchasing experience is shiite.
      China purchasing experience is 5 star.

  24. Most chinese don't care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Frankly. Look at the number of people really bypassing their censorship for political purpose (e.g. remove porn, films etc...), then compare to the population. It is not even countable in the sub 0.0001% and even if they are 1 billion the number are not only low but far away from power or ways from wrestle it. And as far as dictators goes, there are far worse, even supported by the US so....

  25. Patents by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    If Chinese "tech" is so good, then where are the patents?

    They have a big market and they've assimilated a lot of foreign tech. But to say they've developed their own... show it?

    Where is the chinese tech?

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    1. Re:Patents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, if you get rid of all the bullshit patents held by US firms, the number of patents are probably about the same. :P

    2. Re:Patents by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

      If Chinese "tech" is so good, then where are the patents?

      If American "patents" are so good, then where is the tech?

      A lot of patents are granted for stuff that never has been or never will be built.

      An idea doesn't necessarily have to be useful for it to receive a patent. Go ahead and patent a laser head mount for sharks. We'll talk about it here on Slashdot a lot, but you'll never see a real shark wearing one.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    3. Re:Patents by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      they'd have to be pretty near zero.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    4. Re:Patents by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      don't be silly... they're talking about cellphones and laptops etc. Who owns the patents on that stuff?

      It isn't china.

      Who collects the license fees to make that stuff.
      It isn't china.

      What about chinese software? Anything you want to mention anyone cares about?

      Its a garbage argument. Everyone has pointed this out. The article is autistic shit.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    5. Re:Patents by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      don't be silly... they're talking about cellphones and laptops etc. Who owns the patents on that stuff? It isn't china.

      It's not the United States, either, don't be sillier. They're owned by international corporations. If it was in fact the U.S. government that owned much of the world's technology, the CIA would have overthrown it a long time ago. It's what they do.

    6. Re:Patents by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Go ahead and patent a laser head mount for sharks. We'll talk about it here on Slashdot a lot, but you'll never see a real shark wearing one.

      Not for long, anyway.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    7. Re:Patents by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      ... care to name any patent titan in china that was founded in china where the patents are developed in china?

      If not, then my point is sustained.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
    8. Re:Patents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kid before you start claiming that China is some kind of shithole country without any kind of R&D activity, you might want to familiarize yourself with the PRC patent office. They issued about half a million patents in 2017. Here's a recent newsletter from that office describing patent news, feel free to take a look at it. You may want to reconsider your bias on other countries somehow being dependent on American R&D.

    9. Re:Patents by Karmashock · · Score: 1

      We'll see.

      --
      I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  26. IMITATION = Sincerest form of FLATTERY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CHINA imitated me http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/26/boffins_supercharge_the_hosts_file_to_save_users_plagued_by_dns_outages/ in my APK Hosts File Engine 10++ SR-1 32/64-bit https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=&bih=&q=%22APK+Hosts+File+Engine%22+and+%22start64%22&btnG=Google+Search&gbv=1/ vs. DNS tracking + dns security issues or being downed.

    * Mine does most (hardcoded favorites properly resolved which CHINA imitated + gTLD/TLD filtration vs. removed ones (avoids bloat) e.g. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/04/east_timor_was_officially_removed_from_the_internet_yesterday/

    APK

    P.S.=> Accept NO substitute for gaining more speed, security, reliability & even a bit more anonymity online via "yours truly" using what you NATIVELY already have that does FAR more for FAR less vs. competitors full of bugs that slow you (hosts speeds you up 2 ways MINUS tons of security issues (AV/DNS/ROUTERS) or being 'souled-out' (addons))

  27. I can directly attest to that... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See my subject & w/ solid proof https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11759882&cid=56144766/ Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery!

    * My program IS, undoubtedly, the BEST of its kind w/ TONS of benefits...

    APK

    P.S.=> Folks, let me tell you all 1 thing - It's NOT easy being "world-class" (lol, like ME)... apk

  28. Decreed Entrepreneurship? by MAColandro · · Score: 1

    Can innovation really happen by order of the Chinese government? Maybe through focus and sheer scale, but how does can they sustain progress across their whole economy?

  29. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    China is crippled by their lack of diversity. China does not allow immigration, and their country is 99% racially the same. This is poison for a knowledge economy, and the fact that they don't admit refugees virtually guarantees they're going down, sooner rather than later. Don't worry about China, they've already sealed their fate unless they somehow come to their senses and open the borders.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  30. LOL idiot, Japan makes fake steel now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Japan got a head start but only made small progress in cultural change -- now they have some innovation but mostly they became the global leader in refinement, and fortunately they have a strong sense of business ethics such that success is not immediately stolen. Their ethics now mean they can't compete on production, so they're forced to compete on quality, which is why Japanese products are the best in the world for just about any product imaginable (not just for electronics, but for produce, furniture, etc.)

    LOL, what an idiot, Japanese are cheaters.

    The Kobe Steel scandal: What we know so far

    It's the latest big scandal to rock corporate Japan.

    Kobe Steel (KBSTY), a century-old industrial giant, has admitted to falsifying data on products sold to top customers like Boeing (BA) and Toyota (TM).

    It says as many as 500 companies could be affected, including manufacturers of Japan's famous bullet trains.

    Here's the lowdown on the crisis that's rippling through major industries around the globe:

    What happened?

    Essentially, Kobe employees faked reports to make it look as though products met the specifications requested by customers when in fact they didn't.

    The scandal initially concerned copper and aluminum parts, but has spread to steel products, too. It has raised doubts about thousands of tons of material shipped over a period of more than 10 years.

    For the aluminum and copper parts, false data was given about their strength and durability.

    Related: New corporate scandal shakes Japan Inc

    Which industries?

    Kobe steel sells metal to all kinds of different businesses. Some of the main industries to which it has supplied the suspect products include aviation, automobiles, railways and nuclear power.

  31. Chinese send 11 times more money by mobile phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the government is making them dependent on centralized tools to do it. That is the opposite of technical innovation. They're trying to kill crypto currencies for instance within China. Comparatively while the United States doesn't stand out much here outside of New Hampshire we do have the #1 and #2 cities for crypto currency adoption in the world on a per captia basis and both are in New Hampshire. That's mostly because of principled libertarians flocking to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project and Shire Society. We're draining tech entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and around the world. We have a number of companies from leading GNU/Linux hardware companies to crypto to decentralized market places to security. There is no where better to be today than southern New Hampshire if your a tech entrepreneur. I as have many others abandoned NY/NJ/CA explicitly because of the anti-freedom movements being led by socialists in these regions. I don't want to partake in your violent thuggery. I want to be able to start an Uber or a crypto business or any other similar innovative business and in New Hampshire we've started off better than most and been able to amend laws to be more amenable to innovation (we completely gutted the New Hampshire Banking Department of its authority to regulate businesses dealing in crypto currencies for example after they slipped a bad law by us and this is just one of the many benefits that can be directly attributed to the migration of principled libertarians to one low population state).

  32. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If China fails, it will not be for the lack of racial diversity. The idea that racial diversity is what makes an economy great is utter garbage and has no basis in scientific or even empirical fact. It is this kind of magical thinking that is destroying the U.S. with enforced quotas.

    If racial diversity were so critical, Germany would never have been so strong in science and technology up until WWII. We can throw in other civilizations such as the British, French, Roman, Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, etc. as examples of highly advanced civilizations (for their day) that had writing, mathematics, and technology without any real racial diversity.

    And before anyone accuses me of having that kind of opinion because I'm a white supremacist, let me say that I am making this statement as a person who is not of European descent.

    Thousands of years of history show that diversity of ethnicity by itself is not a necessary condition for improvement of the intellectual progress of a nation.

  33. Re:Chinese Boners are smaller than American Boners by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    I'm thinking this A/C wants to be raped by Bill C. At least that is what it sounds like.

  34. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Freischutz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's what they said about Japan: they make shitty copies, no, they make good copies, wait, Japanese products are putting ours to shame. In actual tech (not these web and app based services TFA calls "tech"), innovation, industrial design and quality control, the Chinese are getting there. I've worked with some first rate original Chinese software, and just this weekend got my hand on an upcoming product designed in China (not a knockoff of a Western device). First class stuff that competes with the top brands here and is actually better in some ways. Their English language manuals are actually useful now, and they are finally waking up to the fact that Times New Roman is a poor choice of font to use on buttons and equipment, and looks especially shitty when printed in gold. The coming years will will continue to see a flood of cheap rubbish coming from China... but the amount of quality Chinese original goods is set to increase. Western designers take note. And you can be sure that China will pay more attention to IP laws when that trend continues.

    Hysterical doomsayers also predicted during the 1980s that Japan threatened the very foundations of Judeo-Christian, Capitalist American civilisation, that Japan was outcompeting the US on every level and that the US was essentially doomed. None of that hysteria panned out. China will grow as an economic, political, military and technological powerhouse and with that growth will come all the same problems Europe and the US currently have. What China will not do is become the end of Judeo-Christian, Capitalist American civilisation as we know it so everybody should just calm down and untwist their panties. The only threat to Judeo-Christian, Capitalist American civilisation stems from Americans themselves and the greed, stupidity, shortsightedness and corruption of the people they elect into office.

  35. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm guessing you're joking or being sarcastic, right?

  36. track all their people without their knowledge? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But can they track all their people without their clear knowledge?
    That's what American tech companies do. Everyone is snowed in America.

    In China, there are mandatory tracking apps for your phone. Get stopped by police and you have to prove you have them installed.

    Way to go China!

    Plus, China has mandated all outside tech companies from Cisco, to MSFT to Apple to Siemens to bullet train makers transfer their technology to Chinese companies.

    Wat to go China!

  37. Great Leap Starvation by aberglas · · Score: 2

    And indeed, that is the point.

    Xi Jinping has been concentrating power, and doing everything he can to squash even the mildest forms of dissent. As he gets holder, he will likely get more conservative.

    The Confucian ethic obeys authority. But then we have this strong contradictory force of entrepreneurial energy. And a large and growing body of middle class Chinese that have spent time in the west, outside the great firewall.

    It is unstable and frightening. Hopefully it will resolve peacefully, but if Xi (or his heirs) digs in then it could get very ugly.

  38. Good for China :) by wolfheart111 · · Score: 1

    Its a great Country, beautiful people. If you want to know the facts about it just talk to the people there. So quite with your horror stories about the government and such. Just talk to the people, many speak english quite well.

    --
    [($)]
  39. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  40. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep, China isn't actually doing *anything* that giants like Microsoft and Facebook have been constantly accused of - another company has a good idea, so you steal that idea and find any loopholes in the patents you can. American companies already do this constantly, it's just successful business practice.

  41. Yap by XSportSeeker · · Score: 1

    It's about time people wake up to what's happening there... for the curious, there are some interesting documentaries specifically about Shenzhen you should watch on YouTube, search it up.

    Yes, China still has a very problematic governmental regime, poverty is still prevalent and horrific in part of the country, censorship is incredibly bad there, they don't have welfare, lots of human rights violations, etc etc.

    But there are parts of China that are far more advanced than US and European cities.
    They have basically been the industry of the world for a very long time now with products related to tech, and it might have been true that the country was limited to producing and mostly copying things years ago, but this has changed drastically in recent years.

    Now it's more of a mix. Sure, there are tons of companies still copying stuff designed in other countries at lower quality and costs, but there's plenty of companies that are on the forefront right now.

    DJI is one good example, but there's lot of advanced chinese research into several areas.
    I also think most people don't know to what extent chinese conglomerates already own some very traditional american companies... here's a glimpse:
    http://fortune.com/2016/03/18/...

    I'm not even including Taiwan there too, because that's a whole step above.
    Even for very high end stuff, if you are paying attention, like pc component parts, smartphone tech, digital imaging, and other areas... they might not be right there with the biggest companies just yet, but you'll see that they at the very least have a 3rd or 4th place in many areas, that are ever getting closer despite humble beginnings... Huawei is the 3rd largest smartphone brand, AllWinner and Rockchip are advancing in low powered SoC, Motorola and parent company Lenovo are pretty much estabilished, Blackberry mobile is owned by TLC... well, a whole truckload of former traditional european or american companies are now owned by chinese conglomerates.

    And if you think about it, it's kinda obvious... you are producing all these technological components, eventually you learn all there is to learn about them, and start improving designs by yourself, spreading knowledge about them, building education around it, and getting new generations to work and improve on tech. This happened in Japan and South Korea decades ago.

  42. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    Japan did indeed do a tremendous amount of damage to the American working class. Japanese products were free to sell into the American market, but they were allowed by the US government to set tariffs and trade barriers to American goods. It wasn't an equal playing field.

    Saying China must take the same path as Japan just because they're both Asian? That's racist. Moreover a lot of people would applaud the downfall of American civilization so be careful what you ask for. The entire world hates America for its warmongering and interference in elections.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  43. Plaza Accord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hysterical doomsayers also predicted during the 1980s that Japan threatened the very foundations of Judeo-Christian, Capitalist American civilisation, that Japan was outcompeting the US on every level and that the US was essentially doomed. None of that hysteria panned out.

    That's because the US put a stop to it with the Plaza Accord, that destroyed the Japan economy and they're still trying to recover from that.

    US owns the emperor and politicians in Japan since end of WW2.

    Not the case with China.

  44. Or the lack of trannys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or gender neutral toilets

  45. entrepreneurial + work + ethic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Head explodes.

    Now, don't get me wrong. There's no "Chinese Tech" or "American Tech", tech is global since... 1850's or so. Those nations are now there to divide us, the people (and are donig a damned good job at it). And to hide one very ugly fact: "entrepreneurial" has no "ethics" -- apart of "greed".

  46. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The other key point that no-one has mentioned here is the absolutely catastrophic demographic situation in China. The one child policy has created a nation of people with no brothers or sisters, and virtually guaranteed that China will go through a period where the population ages at a frightening rate. Several foreign publications (e.g. The Economist) have pointed this out 'Will China get old before it gets rich..?'. I live in Japan and one of the factors for the slowdown here is the collapse in the birth rate that really got going in the 80s and 90s.There just aren't enough young people, so the economy stagnates because the rate of innovation and general mojo rapidly drops. In China, they are going to really start to see that in another 5-10 years, and when it hits, the Chinese economy will stop growing more suddenly than anyone expects. From 'China miracle' to 'Where did it all go wrong...?'. 8% growth down to 1% growth, if that. There will be a big banking crisis as a result, and a lot of very serious corporate and government restructuring. Wont be pleasant, and it will take China 20-30 years to emerge from it since the birth policies have only recently been fully relaxed.

  47. Re:Great. They're not there yet but they're learni by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Allwinner/sunix has come a long way in the last decade. It's probably as good as Broadcom at this point but not quite Marvell.

    Let us know when they get enough kernel code mainlined to actually use the system for something more than a serial console, for example the a64. They promised it years ago. They're liars who play fast and loose with the GPL, and they can DIAF.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  48. What US tech?? Is there any? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here in Europe, I haven't seen a US product in the last two decades.
    The only thing you still know to make, is mass murder toys.

    "Designed in the USA" just means a US firm outsourced to India and China. Which is convenient, since it is manufactured there anyway. Because otherwise you couldn't afford it, thanks to how much your great leaders (the profit leeches) suck off between sale and salary.

    The best part is how, no matter how hard your nose is pushed into the dog turd, you still cling to the delusion that ideas can be "owned". Just like with religion, politics, news, and many of your social rules: Reality disagrees, yet you don't care.
    Meanwhile China doesn't give a fuck, and Chinese are also working for their country instead of only themselves. And China is currently steamrolling you with that.

    And I don't even like China. Their culture (just like the Japanese and Korean one) is truly fucked-up. (Like yours, and like ours in many aspects.)

    1. Re:What US tech?? Is there any? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      God created men, Sam Colt made 'em equal.

  49. Chinese (internal) wars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The US government is a serial warmonger. China hasn't started even a single war in decades. You think people haven't noticed that? You think Libya or Syria enjoys being how it is? Or Iraq?

    They've been too busy killing their own citizens during the Great Leap Forward, and oppressing them during the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square crack down (where people were squished by tanks).

    Who has time to go after foreigners when you're busy with your own citizens?

    Ditto for the Soviet Union.

  50. +1 Irony by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Ta hell with the idea of social-credit systems.
    We just had stories about CoCs, as well as both progressive and conservative persecution of ideologically alternative groups. Yeah, the west is much better.

    > Ta hell with mass surveillance of the kind that even the NSA can't dream of in Urumqi.
    Mandatory app installation? Hello, every phone company since smartphones came out. As to the rest, capitalist consumers are busily buying the ropes to hang themselves in the form of 'Smart' TVs, cloud connected smarthome equipment (whether IP cameras, voice activated home hubs, routers, vacuums, kitchen appliances, sex toys, or smart switches/plugs)

    Ta hell with body scanners and mass privacy invasion on public transport.
    DHS THZ vans in NYC. Social Media selfie taking, incomplete but new traffic camera installs on every replaced/refurbished traffic light fixture (at least in California... so far), Loss Prevention camera systems in stores tied into offsite storage and analysis including by FBI and other government agents (as evidenced by the facial recognition that helped capture that schoolteacher that ran off with his 15 year old student a year or two back.)

    > Thank G-d the West isn't China. We have some pretty scummy governments, but nothing as evil and intrusive as China yet.
    Only because in Consumerist America the rope is on layaway and we haven't finished paying for it so they can hang us. An interesting analogy by the way since Anti-suicide laws in Britain, the US and elsewhere were put into place to provide deterrence to people committing suicide and leaving their debts unrepaid. They don't care if you kill yourself, only if someone else doesn't get their money back before you do.

    Also for the Americans among you: If you were stupid enough to hate on either Obama or Trump the past 12 years, you're too busy being a sheep and conflating symptoms with the cause.

  51. Ignores an important difference... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Japan's population was already in decline back in those days, although people hadn't realized it yet.

    Also Japan was/is extremely resource starved meaning that their rate of growth, ability to manufacture cheaply, etc were all limited by what they could get from other regions, like raw materials/fuel from Russia, China, the US, etc.

    China on the other hand has... 2 billion people? Meaning 6-7x the population of the US, a neutral to slightly positive reproduction rate, and effectively unlimited mineral wealth, as well as the manpower and military capable of expanding it as foreign/domestic economic and material markets demand. Furthermore as has been noted before, they're been smart and restricted foreign ownership of companies, property, etc while at the same time buying up foreign property/companies/mineral rights in countries not smart enough to have those laws (including most of the 5 eyes member states, South America, and Africa), while brokering economic assistance deals with other foreign hostile regimes in order to obtain financial footholds in the local or regional markets/supply chain.

    The irony of this being that anyone who read up on China's past history and how it became a state of the size it is today would have already realized the threat it posed. This is the same cycle of political/economic death and rebirth that China has gone through since Ages immemorial.

  52. One has been around for thousands of years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the other dominates the world today.

    Tell me again how much more sophisticated you are....

  53. Not so fast... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Brother married a Chinese nut case. She thought she owned my mothers house just because she lived in it. Chased the upstairs neighbors out with her crazy bull. Shoved my other brother off a ladder. Women was total bat-shit crazy. Spanked her kids (hard) starting at 2years old. I could go on but...
    To be fair; yes i have met other Chinese people that were very cool.

    1. Re:Not so fast... by johnsie · · Score: 1

      To be fair an American guy just went around a school shooting people. How does that compare to this Chinese lady?

    2. Re:Not so fast... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me drop this here for you:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenpeng_Village_Primary_School_stabbing

  54. That all sounds impressive, but we're... by mark_reh · · Score: 1

    bringin' back COAL!

    #MAGA!

  55. "Black Mirror"'s NOSEDIVE... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Season 3 episode 1 (ultimate outcome of a 'social credit system' in the end) - it's happened to me in a way in this life (not that I care as I'm LONG past trying to win purely arbitrary "popularity contests" - I'm here to WIN!).

    * ... & IF I were to equate myself @ this stage of my life (early 50's, fairly 'self-actualized' as far as Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs' etc.) to ANYONE in it? It would be "U SCHLEP" truckdriver.

    Great actress as "Lacie Pound" main character!

    (The emotional work, especially @ a wedding & in prison while 'angels wings = torn off' so to speak')

    Her performance "got to me" (as I said, it had happened to me in ways).

    APK

    P.S.=> As far as your commentary on gov't.? China IS the prototype for what globalists want...... apk

  56. Re:there weak IP laws let them copy all of our goo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look at the population difference between China and Japan and then you should see the difference.

  57. Re:Great. They're not there yet but they're learni by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Precisely like the "Made in Japan" phobia. That was overcome.

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes