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Comment by mSparks | Hacker News Reader

The article does not in any way address the fact that China has the very low cost base (massive numbers of highly trained human capital and substantial investment in physical capital and R&D) to guarantee pretty much no other country can compete.

Does it?

Instead, it seems to start from the premise that they are not already the world leaders in "next gen technology".

Which is a total fallacy.

You know lines like:

China’s manufacturing engine has largely stalled

and

Even though China is graduating far more than 1 million engineers every year, the quality of their education is so poor that they are not employable in technical professions.

->utter BS. For a start, their "top 10%" is greater than the total number of US graduates. And their "Bottom 10%" is still more employable in a technical profession than an average US graduate.

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Unfortunately, when you focus on human capital in China, you can't dismiss the fact that China, particularly in the manufacturing sector represents modern day slavery. The fact that no other country can compete only supports this.

In fact, the article does address this (cheap Chinese labor/slavery), and proposes that the shift in need of labor through robotics and automation, essentially resets the playing field in that regard.

They are not already the leader in next-gen technology because it is next-gen, is is in the formative stages. It is the leader in manufacturing, the current generation.

I don't agree with the statement that their manufacturing engine has stalled. Their growth is diminishing and their dominance is at risk.

I agree that the statement that their education is so poor they are not employable sounds like b.s.

That was never my point. If you can respond to my points, that would be a start. If you could refute them rather than promoting the propaganda I would be impressed.

->They are not already the leader in next-gen technology because it is next-gen, is is in the formative stages. It is the leader in manufacturing, the current generation.

Erm. They are the leaders in everything from manufacturing to supercomputing. What does that exclude?

-> Unfortunately, when you focus on human capital in China, you can't dismiss the fact that China, particularly in the manufacturing sector represents modern day slavery.

Maybe, maybe not. Working for western companies like Apple, sure.

Alibaba

probably somewhere between conditions at Google and Ebay.

At least you are funny...

So, it's the Western companies, like Apple? I don't think so. Western society may provide the demand and the capital to create the conditions, but the Chinese are the perpetrators of slave labor.

Can you provide some examples of where they are already leading in a field that doesn't exist yet?

nuclear: msr projects and their fusion reactors.

various space based warfare kit (shooting down satellites for example)

that quantum communication satellite.

Im sure there is more.

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