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Comment on China has world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor thanks to ‘strategic stamina’

On most of the fediverse, I find discussions really great with no idiots/trolls… apart from technology. Here it seems some get triggered by any tech from outside the US.

This announcement would be seen as a massive breakthrough anywhere else. China has its problems, I’m fully aware of the red flags and government influence. But only a fool would question their technological advances at this point. They are moving ahead at lightning speed, especially in energy and battery tech.

Even on the consumer side, Huawei invested more in R&D last year than Samsung or Intel. Huawei consumer division could have been expected to be dead by now with the chip ban, yet survived and are thriving again. Not because the Chinese were forced to by their phones, Apple still sell in China, but because they innovated like hell. A Chinese buyer has the option today of buying a tri-folding tablet phone with super fast charging or an American designed device with 3 year old tech (chip aside). Americans don’t have that choice.

Its also the reason why traditional European car brands are tanking in China. VW can no longer expect to sell on prestige alone. Here in Britain, our consumer tech offering is already almost non existent. We no longer have a true British owned car company. Our famous Mini was sold to the Germans. Jaguar/Range Rover to the Indians. MG to the Chinese. Its depressing. But I do feel fortunate to at least have choice (we can buy a BYD or Xiaomi here) and that I’m not subject to only American tech reporting. BYD will later this year have 7 different car models on sale in Britain vs 6 (soon to be 5) from Ford. This is a paradigm shift, considering for almost the last 20 years Ford had at least 2 cars in the top 5 best sellers in the UK.

Apologies for going off on one. But i’d highly recommend US readers check out Chinese tech sites from time to time (eg carnewschina/huawei central etc) rather than just relying on the verge. Sure not all Chinese tech will be successful, sure some designs may be clones, but the shear scale of investment from China will make them unstoppable. I believe the changing of the guard happened a while ago, where about to see it play out in all industries…

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xav@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

China has its problems, I’m fully aware of the red flags

I see what you did here

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futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

This announcement would be seen as a massive breakthrough anywhere else.

I don’t trust science (or R&D engineering) that’s not peer reviewed. Anything else is just marketing hype. Show me hard numbers or GTFO.

China also has a problem with the government lying-- for example, about their claimed reductions in greenhouse emissions. There’s no reason to trust self-serving authoritarians without credible corroboration.

BYD will later this year have 7 different car models on sale in Britain vs 6 (soon to be 5) from Ford.

That’s an irrelevant metric. Nobody’s going to buy a car just because the model range is a bit wider than some other company’s. What’s relevant is adoption, and then buyer loyalty. It may be that BYD offers cars that people want to buy, but they’re subsequently found to be of crap quality or aggressively undermining driver privacy (which other non-Chinese manufacturers have also done).

but the shear scale of investment from China will make them unstoppable

If appropriately rigorous science and suitably disciplined engineering are part of the process, and regulators do their jobs correctly, then maybe. Otherwise it’s just throwing money at a problem. Investment doesn’t guarantee results. China is certainly capable of getting positive outcomes from tech investment, but it’s not guaranteed.

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- Gigasser@lemmy.world ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I mean I thought thorium reactors were figured out already? The economics of it and lobbying by big oil was the problem. It ain’t that surprising that China could make a thorium reactor though.
  
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opossumo@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
What are you on about?

Nearly every upvoted comment is in praise of this. Only 2 comments warn caution about Chinese data.

Why do people need to lie and pretend China is this big victim being picked on.

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- futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Posts like yours reek of nothing more than propaganda.
  
  Smells more like bootlicking to me.
  
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- Binette@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  scrolled past and saw one for almost every subthread.
  
  Post about western achievements are often taken as granted (except maybe curing cancer), while eastern ones are scrutinised to the smallest of details.
  
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  - Tja@programming.dev ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Not Eastern ones, Chinese specifically. Japanese or Korean science is generally trusted, but dictatorships have a tendency of making shit up to look better. We’ll believe it when we see it.
    
    China has plenty of achievements, but also plenty of bullshit vaporware. We’ll see which one this is.
    
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  - futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Show me any post about any technological advance that doesn’t have critical comments in the thread.
    
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  - HighFructoseLowStand@lemm.ee ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    You don’t suppose there might be reason people don’t trust the news coming from a country with no freedom of speech or press?
    
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    BrainInABox@lemmy.ml ⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Yeah yeah, “you can’t believe it until Rupert Murdoch and Elon Musk confirm it”
    
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interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
But it’s not a market based solution! It’s centrally planned and it’s possible no one is even making phat profits from this! Highly unethical!

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Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
People on Lemmy are really good at seeing past capitalist propaganda, except when it comew to China. At that point it’s just straight up state department talking points.

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- futatorius@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  People on Lemmy are really good at seeing past capitalist propaganda, except when it comes to China.
  
  Any information coming to the West from China is state capitalist propaganda.
  
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  - Pirata@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that buddy.
    
    I’m sure you also used that cope when Harvard university (that well-known Chinese university) found out that 95.5% of Chinese people are happy with their government, compared to only 38% of USians.
    
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    gregs_gumption@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    “95.5% of people who are forced to say they like their government say they like their government”
    
    You should be more skeptical, anything that claims to have a 95% approval rating is probably not telling the truth.
    
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Teknikal@eviltoast.org ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
I think Android went pretty horribly since Huwai stopped making contributions, They contributed more than any other company up until the ban including Google who own it.

I kinda expect in about 5 years Harmony is going to take Androids dinner.

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TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Jaguar Land Rover may be owned by Tata, an Indian financial holding company, but they’re still based in the UK, designed in the UK, built in the UK.

That was broadly the same for Mini too until the most recent generation, where the EV version is actually a Chinese car.

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- anomnom@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Mini has been owned by BMW since 2000 and are still made in the UK, Germany and Austria’s Hungary. The EVs are from Great Wall Motors (in China), but they’re going to start assembling them in the UK next year too.
  
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