by bailewen on Sat May 30, 2020 10:58 pm
@Bill,
Pleasantly surprised by your response.
I hope you also realize I am not defending China on this. It's more of a frustration at our own response.
I view the ant-science thing in terms of trajectories, not status. US Universities are still MILES ahead of Chinese Unis. Actually, at the college level, China has a truly long way to catch up. But culturally, nerds are still praised. The government is intensely interested in the tech race, and the government is modeling pro-science. Government bureaucrats wear surgical masks when they are on TV and culturally, hard science is glorified more than finance.
We had our "sputnik moment" with Russia. China's "sputnik moment" was about 4 or 5 years ago when Google AI beat the world champion at Go. That basically launched a massive race for the best AI. Also, as China does not value privacy they way we do, they have a tremendous advantage for AI research because AI development is at a point now where having the best scientists is not as important as having the best data, and there is a saying in AI research that, "there's not data like more data", and China has more data than anyone.
Also, ironically, and sadly, their tight controls on social media have protected them from foreign interference in their mediasphere. So while most of their media is highly censored propaganda, the propaganda is mostly aimed at promoting policies that are in the national interest.
So at the end of the day, in "realpolitik" terms, they are winning.
I seriously wish they weren't because I desperately want to move home, but with a crashing economy and open rebellion in the streets, it's kind of hard to convince my wife that we would really have a better life in the US. It blows my fucking mind that I have to work hard to convince my Chinese wife that life will be safer and more prosperous in the US.
I am losing the argument.