Yes people are so important in China that they can’t be allowed to vote for who runs their country and they can’t own land. Discouraged from using the internet because they might get their own ideas like deciding which God to worship [ besides the CCP, of course ].
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0Thanks Dave
I will mostly just address the one point that as a professional patent attorney for 25 years for US, and Japan I am best experienced with.
If you try to get a patent in the US the biggest obstacle is if someone else already invented it. This is called “prior art.”
For some years now the largest amount of prior art in most fields is in Chinese because the Chinese invented first. My patent searcher friends complain about this. Even in my own work, most prior art references be it in biochemistry or electronics, is from China.
For most fields of technology, Chinese are already leading, number one, pole position, however you want to state it. I said “most” because in the smallest size transistor field, a variety of countries (US for tool making, Taiwan, Korea for manufacturing) are leading in the challenging 5G area. As a result China has imported (I have read as many as 5000) advanced chipmaking engineers from Taiwan late last year.
The Japanese are extremely creative. The most important invention from Japan in recent years was the blue LED light, which made possible white light LEDs that replaced fluorescent bulbs. This was invented in the countryside of Japan.
Another one, is ivermectin. In this context I point out that invention is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. A friend of mine in Kyoto (with others who left a big corp to establish their own start up there) invented an advanced optic imaging chip (now used in some cell phones). They had to go to mainland China (not Taiwan) to get it manufactured. The most difficult and challenging technologies tend to be in manufacturing from one viewpoint. The Japanese are the world experts in the resins and packaging chemistries for mounting and assembling advanced chips. This is why apple iphones could not be made after the Fukushima melt down, which closed a specialty manufacturer (based on new technology in plastics) in N. Japan.
I was a research scientist in the research labs of a large company in Japan for 4 years in Osaka before becoming a patent attorney, working for Japanese companies. After working for a similar sized R&D location (a few hundred PhDs) in the US prior to that, I was able to make direct comparisons. During my 1000`s of conversations and many research meetings, I found that the researchers in Japan are just as innovative if not more so than in America. And, now that the US patent system has been re-formatted to screw inventors and favor international corps, and the Japanese greatly improved their system to reward small inventors (in response to encourage more inventors of things like blue LEDs), new ideas are not being held back in Japan like they used to be. A few times I got harassed on ferries by people who learned that I am a patent attorney and wanted to tell me about their own invention so they can get a patent. Some of these are amazing (a true fundamental alloy of iron with copper that does not rust, but is very conductive and magnetic, for example). Rather, it is the American inventors that need to keep their ideas to themselves or get ripped off more easily. I have seen this change. Further, the Chinese are dramatically improving their patent system as well, mostly by increasing the ability to sue and collect large damages but also by providing funds for patenting, and opening branch patent offices in technology parks.
I know of Chinese engineers who were offered a job in Japan but refused because their standard of living in coastal mainland China is so much better. I have rolled up my sleeves and worked alongside Chinese engineers, who surprised me with their quick understanding of things. In fact, for both Japan and China, it is easier for me to explain complicated technology to someone who “gets it” easily, despite language difficulties (a simple drawing suffices). Maybe because the education system is better, I really do not know. It is true that IBM/Intel/Samsung etc. have sunk tens of billions into advanced lithography technologies and that the Chinese are catching up. But for other chips in the internet of things, there are fantastic new products coming out of Shenzhen, which is a hot bed of innov0ation, that goes well beyond the cell phone app writing that dominates Silicon Valley.
Dave, I dont have a dog in this argument-fight and do not really care to convince people PRO! or CON! on this stuff. Believe it or dont. What difference does it make?
I need to focus on my own technology. I am working privately on radio and hope to discuss that topic next year when I have something useful and filed at the Japanese patent office. Meanwhile, if you or anyone else would like to build/use/market large scale lighting systems that very simply and cheaply provides very high EROI renewable energy lights during the daytime for offices/garages/stores send me a PM and I will send you a short powerpoint. The powerpoint (and related patent applications) have much stuff that is not described in my book “Take Back The Power!” that some people here kindly looked up on amazon (can read first section for free there).
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Thanks Mots. I stand corrected on both Chinese and Japanese inventors. You as a patent attorney would have a good view into this particular dynamic. I do wonder: how is it that a system (Japan!) that revolves around the concept “the nail that stands up gets pounded down” nevertheless manages to generate independent thought. Clearly the human spirit finds a way. I enjoyed my time in Japan - lived and worked there for about 4 months - although it was a few decades ago.
China as a nation remains relatively resource-poor (that’s the reason for belt-and-road), and surrounded by nations that have a pre-US-CIA-influence “concern” about the country. Namely Vietnam, Japan, Korea, Russia, and India. Each one of these places have fought wars with, or been invaded/occupied by China, in the not-so-distant past. The US (by contrast) has a big ocean between the rest of the world. It is a naval power, while China is not. Not sure how China - which relies on trade for its prosperity - will keep all that prosperity going, without “someone” protecting the sea lanes. Maybe they’ll invent a Navy? They’ll have to. Maybe the CCP will run the new international order? That’s sure food for thought.
My friends in Taiwan are not members of the Oligarchy. They just want to be able to vote for their government. Which they can now, finally, do. I think they want to keep it that way. Same with my friends in Hong Kong. If you can tell me how mainlanders give meaningful “feedback” to Xi that doesn’t land them in prison, I’m still waiting to hear what that process looks like. He is dictator for life. And the PLA has all the guns.
The sum total of all your guys objections to my post: “Dave! The CCP Is a BENEVOLENT dictatorship! They are WISE dictators.”
Being a student of history, I don’t trust they will remain benevolent. I tend to focus on the word “dictatorship” much more than the word “benevolent.”
The CCP is the place where the rest of the world is headed. I believe it is instructive to see what their model is about: strict limitations on what you can say, how you can act, where you can go, what you can do. Sounds like their patent law is improving, so that’s a plus. Now do that for speech, and travel, and prayer, and all the rest. Or maybe - just keep your head down, and hope they don’t do to you what they did to “effeminate actors.” Sorry girly-boys, you’re out, no more career for you! Why? Oh, because we woke up one morning and decided to do this. Just because. We know best. Sucks to be you, doesn’t it? Time to man up! Because we said so.
That’s where things are headed. Oligarchy-dictatorship wakes up one morning, and decides everyone needs the shot. Why? Well, because! We know best. Sucks to be you, unvaxxed scumbag. Take the shot or else - off to the camps.
How’s that forced-vaccination campaign going in China? I’m guessing - pretty well. What the CCP wants, the CCP gets.
“Benevolent” dictatorships - aren’t. And the US and the rest of the West is for sure heading in this direction. CCP is already there.
How does this sort of thing usually play out in human history, again? Hitler definitely rebuilt Germany following WW1. Lots of prosperity. Mussolini got those trains to (finally!) run on time. And it was all fun and games, unless…you had to wear the yellow star, or the pink triangle, or you weren’t of the proper racial purity, etc, etc. Or you said something bad about the Nazi party. And the camps, of course.
Benevolent Dictators - aren’t. The common people need a “feedback mechanism” for leadership. The alternative is always: Arbeit Mach Frei. Dictators gonna dictate. Will we remember this in time?
I hope so.
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“Not sure how China - which relies on trade for its prosperity - will keep all that prosperity going, without “someone” protecting the sea lanes. Maybe they’ll invent a Navy?”
China has a rapidly growing navy. But, they are still a distant second or third to the US Navy. As I noted earlier, so far the Chinese navy is only relevant in the South China Sea, which is one of the globe’s most important trade routes. The US Navy is the key determinate in keeping the South China Sea open to trade. The main threat to that is China itself. So, between China and the US, the South China Sea should remain wide open for Chinese trade for the foreseeable future.
The only other real choke points for international sea trade are the strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal, the strait of Gibraltar and the Panama Canal. They all remain wide open at this point in time.