Further Proof Outlaw US Empire Losing Technological Race to China

And it’s not just China the Empire’s falling behind as Russia has a very distinct advantage in weaponry of all types. But here the focus will be on what the Empire’s doing to itself that’s almost comical in its attempts to restrict China’s technological advancement, for as we’ve seen illegal sanctions cut both ways. Again, Global Times fires back at American publications with an editorial, “Supercomputing Becoming a 'Covert War?' US Tech Terrorism is Culprit,” where the use of the term “terrorism” is a gauge of Chinese anger at the situation. However, as you read what follows, you’ll see there’s a Keystone Kop type of inanity at the core of US policy:

The US is once again feeling anxious about supercomputers, a strategic emerging industry. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article stating that China is getting "secretive" about its supercomputers. According to the article, Chinese scientists have become more secretive and have stopped participating in the TOP500 forum, making it harder for the US government to know who has faster supercomputers between China and the US. In the latest TOP500 ranking released in June, the US dominated the top three spots and held half of the top 10, while China's "Sunway TaihuLight" ranked 13th and "Tianhe-2A" ranked 16th. This significant disparity in rankings has made the US suspicious, fearing that China is engaged in a supercomputing "covert war" against it, thus accusing China of hindering international supercomputing exchanges by keeping secrets.

This is not the first time the US media has stirred up this topic. Two years ago, Voice of America published an article asking, "Why is China, which leads in supercomputing, being so secretive?" The US' suspicion and anxiety are not surprising. From 2010 to 2019, China topped the TOP500 list 11 times out of 20 evaluations, and the US started to launch wave after wave of chip bans and entity list sanctions against Chinese supercomputing institutions under the pretext of "national security." As a result, China's presence in the TOP500 rankings has dimmed. Initially, US media were pleased that China had opted out and relinquished the top spot. However, in recent years, speculation about how much strength China is hiding has grown. TOP500 co-founder Jack Dongarra repeatedly stated that China has faster supercomputers, even speculating that China's supercomputer power may exceed all other countries.

Setting aside China's progress in supercomputing, the key issue is that while the TOP500 list increasingly serves as a tool for the US Department of Commerce to sanction and suppress Chinese supercomputers, they still expect Chinese institutions to willingly participate and be targeted. This is unreasonable. Supercomputing was once a field where China and the US had close technological cooperation and exchange. However, now the landscape of international supercomputing exchanges is filled with pitfalls, primarily due to the US' near-terroristic sanction measures to maintain its technological hegemony.

In April 2021, the US Department of Commerce added seven Chinese supercomputing entities to the so-called "Entity List," alleging that they were "destabilizing military modernization." In October 2023, another 13 Chinese entities were added to the "Entity List," on the grounds that their involvement in the development of advanced computing integrated circuits "can be used to provide artificial intelligence capabilities for the further development of weapons of mass destruction, advanced weapons systems, and high-tech surveillance applications that create national security concerns." China's development of supercomputing technology is often labeled as a "threat to US national security" and subjected to unreasonable unilateral sanctions. Therefore, it is quite natural for Chinese scientists to refrain from attending international supercomputing forums, as they need to guard against the possibility of the US engaging in "entrapment" under the guise of long-arm jurisdiction during international technical exchanges.

"Entrapment" is by no means an alarmist term. The global TOP500 supercomputing rankings are updated every six months, and supercomputers from China, Japan, and the US have all claimed the title of "world's fastest supercomputer." However, in recent years, China's leading supercomputing companies have refrained from participating in the TOP500 rankings because companies that perform well on this list risk being blacklisted by the US and facing even harsher sanctions. With Washington wielding a big stick of sanctions at the door, constantly watching whose supercomputing performance threatens the US position and then sanctioning them, it has severely disrupted normal academic exchanges and a healthy competitive environment.

As for The Wall Street Journal's accusation that "Chinese scientists also reduced how much data they shared in other scientific forums," this is a clear double standard. The important fact not mentioned in the article is that the US is even more "secretive" than China regarding supercomputing technology. In addition to sanctioning Chinese supercomputing companies, Washington now even sanctions Chinese supercomputing academic conferences. The US Department of Commerce sends unified emails to foreign companies, warning them not to participate in or support supercomputing conferences held by China. In fact, Chinese experts still participate in some international supercomputing conferences, while many American experts no longer dare to communicate with their Chinese counterparts for fear of being accused of "leaking secrets" or even "espionage." Currently, US administrative orders and regulations that restrict and suppress China's high-tech industry are beginning to produce a McCarthy-era-like chilling effect. This has seriously damaged the atmosphere of China-US technological exchanges and hindered the progress of science and technology for all humanity.

Supercomputing plays an important role in many fields, such as weather forecasting, gene sequencing, materials design, and pharmaceuticals. It should not become "central to the US-China technological Cold War" as described by The Wall Street Journal. Some Western scientists have expressed concern about the potential division, believing it will slow down the development of AI and other technologies. It is important to emphasize that the key to preventing this division is to jointly resist the technological unilateralism and technological terrorism of the US, creating a good atmosphere for global scientific exchange and cooperation. China's supercomputing is not an untouchable "secret," but the key is for the US to abandon its well-known habit of technological intimidation. [My Emphasis]

By attempting to inhibit international scientific interactions in almost every area, the Outlaw US Empire only serves to harm itself as the recent inability to examine the lunar materials China obtained. The terrorism is evident in the bullying done to all nations because the truth of the matter is the Outlaw US Empire is falling behind in almost all tech fields and the gap between it and some nations in the security field is actually widening. In his recent article, “China has achieved escape velocity: it is now unstoppable,” Pepe Escobar notes, China’s “turning a nation of factory workers into a nation of engineers. Of 10,5 million university graduates a year, a third are engineers.” What US policy has done is alienate the many Chinese students who came to get tech-related degrees within the Empire and were often recruited to work for US tech companies, but that source is rapidly drying up thanks to xenophobic politicians and politicized academics at major institutions. Pepe continues:

Hegemon hysteria aside, the fact is the Chinese economy will grow by a whopping $1.7 trillion only in 2024….

And Beijing borrowed exactly zero yuan for this growth. The U.S. economy, by comparison, may grow by $300 billion in 2024; but Washington had to borrow $3.3 trillion for that to happen.

And the truth to that last comparison is that $3.3 trillion represents overhead costs that actually reduce the projected growth to a negative amount, just as what’s been happening since the dot-com crash. That’s policy continuity for you. So, that “hysteria” reflects the dire nature of the Outlaw US Empire’s reality. There’s an old adage that describes that behavior: Cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I expect more futility to come moving forward. Look at all the systems that are falling apart or don’t function anywhere near as designed and touted: Minuteman III missile system; F-35; Boeing Starliner; hypersonic missile program; no decent main battle tank; and a military whose last independent readiness analysis gave it a grade of D+. Even when it comes to producing old tech like 155mm shells and the howitzers that shoot them, the companies that charge massive amounts of overhead to produce those vital items are greater threats to national security than all Chinses tech firms. For all his memory issues, Biden occasionally said something correct: the MIC is a jobs program as are NATO’s exploits. And amidst all that failure and futility the Outlaw US Empire still wants to take on China that’s backed by a Russia it can’t defeat.

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