China Systematically Developing New Technologies 261
newsblaze writes "China, having recognized there are major gaps in its science and technology arsenal, released their Technology Development Plans. The plans cover five main areas — geology, mechanical engineering, metallurgical engineering and aeronautical engineering. Three areas are prioritized in space technology and six major goals are announced.
All this comes after having first set out their 100 Year Vision of Greatness.
They appear to be giving themselves a breathing space, telling the world they are interested in cooperation and also giving themselves a major target, in much the same way as John F Kennedy did for the USA."
It's easier when you have a target (Score:2, Insightful)
Hooray (Score:2, Insightful)
They got any plans to start respecting human rights?
this is all well and nice but (Score:3, Insightful)
Science is a system and culture based on open discourse, accountability and merit. A culture that strives for good science should also honour these values in itself.
Re:It's easier when you have a target (Score:5, Insightful)
Though, there have been some impressive contributions to the crypto community from chinese researchers recently. They're already ahead of the curve in some fields.
Re:this is all well and nice but (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't impose liberty. You grow it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's the fourth main area? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just a shot fired across the bow of globalization. But since the globalists are all worshipers of Mao, this resurgence of national identity for China will go unnoticed.
The ??? step (Score:3, Insightful)
Definition (Score:4, Insightful)
This must be some strange meaning of the words "middle class" of which I have not previously been aware. Last I saw, "Middle Class" in the United States was defined as having incomes in the $36,000-$120,000 range; which while certainly comfortable and able to afford a few luxuries and assets, is certainly NOT what I'd call "financially independant" or "not working class".
Other than that I agree with you- as did George Orwell. The working poor can't afford to revolt- 100% of their time is spent just trying to survive. The rich are profiting from the status quo, they aren't going to change anything. Only with a middle class, who suffer due to worker conditions and prosper with a robust economy, can these changes be made.
Kennedy dreams (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:this is all well and nice but (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You can't impose liberty. You grow it. (Score:3, Insightful)
"Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!"
Maybe, but the leaders of the revolution are usually comfortable middle-class intellectuals and student cadres, people freed from the daily necessity of earning their bread and with the leisure time to, say, debate ideology and distribute progressive literature.
The workers do have a great deal to lose. The British miners in the 1980s were highly motivated, politically informed and highly idealistic, but enough of them were prepared to scab once they saw their families suffering because of the strike; in the end Thatcher won. A 25% drop in the rich man's pay means he drives a smaller car and goes on holiday only once a year, or only within his home continent. A 25% drop in the worker's pay means his children go hungry. Not to mention that the rich man's wealth gives him substantially greater resources which he can use to make a difference.
Re:Cultural differences (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's easier when you have a target (Score:1, Insightful)
Toyota Lean Production methods (for instance) are far from trivial -- otherwise you'd see Detroit cranking out quality cars as well if it was just a matter of simply "copying" Deming's work.
Re:Read as... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:You can't impose liberty. You grow it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Name a single society in history where the lower classes were the driving force for democracy? The democratic revolutions in the West (the United States, Britain, France) were driven by the interests of the commercial elite. Now, list the countries where corrupt governments came to power by making empty promises to the poor, who were only too happy to believe whatever they heard? Latin America, South-East Asia, and Africa are full of examples.
Re:Why is that a troll? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's say that it's around 1915, your name is Thomas J. Watson and you've just been been hired to help out a company called Computing- Tabulating- Recording Company. Your job is to come up with a hundred-year plan to help the company sell their tabulating and time-recording devices to businesses. Please account for technologies that haven't been invented yet, materials that haven't been discovered or invented, a couple of wars, advances in travel and communications, a depression that wiped out most of the valuation of the country, radical changes in culture and a space program. What's your plan?
Too tough? Ok, let's try for 50 years. Please account for multiple "police actions" with other countries, a revolution in electronics, two wars, the creation of global communication infrastructure based upon technology that doesn't yet exist and a revolution in miniaturization, satellites and an attempt at a landing on the Moon.
Wanna try for a twenty-five-year plan? Add computers that are cheap enough to be bought by normal people. You get the point.
BTW, if the name isn't a hint as to what that company became, here's another: who has the most patents?
Re:this is all well and nice but (Score:4, Insightful)
Every society defines its own crime. The "political undesirable" were criminals, in Soviet Russia. What is wrong with American society that we have so many criminals? Are there more criminals, or more *crimes* -- behaviors that in the past did not result in imprisonment, but now do?
Are things really getting worse on the street, or are three-strikes laws and 0-tolerance drug policies for non-violent offenders locking up people who are otherwise productive members of society?
This CS Monitor article [csmonitor.com] says that we now lead the world in incarceration: "More than 5.6 million Americans are in prison or have served time there, according to a new report by the Justice Department released Sunday. That's 1 in 37 adults living in the United States, the highest incarceration level in the world."
" We don't send entire families to gulags. We don't execute or exile our Jews, gays, and minorities. Were exiles (internal) counted in your prison figures? I bet not."
You know what? You might be right. We might not actually have worse incarceration rates than Soviet Russia. But I'm sick of not being the worst. I believe that America is the greatest country on Earth. I think we should have the lowest incarceration rate in the world, right now, not just lower than Soviet Russia.
This ABC article [abc.net.au] says that "The United States has incarcerated 726 people per 100,000 of its population, seven to 10 times as many as most other democracies. The rate for England is 142 per 100,000, for France 91 and for Japan 58. " Why are we getting beaten by Japan, France, and England? Why aren't we on top?
China is not a planned economy! (Score:2, Insightful)