Hi! Readers
Live mint (https://www.livemint.com/) in March 2023 mentioned in a report published by Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) at the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi, indicating that China is on its path to establish monopoly in more than one area of technology. The report says that,
“China and the United States seem to be leading a warring camp of the East and the west respectively, which is evident in the financial support, defense supply and various other factor”.
Sensing this war for establishing a superpower, an Australian thinktank has studied that in a year,
“China has taken the lead in 37 of 44 technologies as opposed to US”.
This means that at times when China was suffering from the worst outbreak of the global pandemic, she was simultaneously capturing her labour force and their innovative brains to take the lead in the race for being the superpower: a fact that is reflected by the report published by ASPI.
The report is based on the survey conducted for electric batteries (devices that convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy which is seen as a crucial link in a green-technology supply chain increasingly dominated by China as Chinese get tax rebates, cheaper vehicle registration, preferential parking and access to an extensive charging network), hypersonic and advanced radio frequency communications such as 5G and 6G.
5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. Like previous technologies, 5G also uses cell sites that transmit data through radio waves. connect to networks with wireless or wired connection and work by modifying how data is encoded which significantly increases the number of usable spectrum, the airwaves that deliver voice, video and data services for carriers.
Since spectrum is the “lifeblood” hence, its capacity is one of the major concerns of large carriers: lack of which means poor quality and the inability to attract new customers. Such concerns are addressed by 5G which is the latest recapitulation of mobile networks prepared to revolutionize the world of connectivity by offering faster download and upload speeds, lower inactivity, and higher reliability. It communicates between frequencies of 27.5-40 GHz which is part of the Ka band (A portion of the microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum which offers wide bandwidth, high throughput, high data rates, and small components and antenna size. This band has been used for satellite communications around the world, specifically earth to space transmission. The Ka-band frequency is also used in communication with spacecraft, radars, vehicle speed detection, and space telescopes.
6G is the 6th generation mobile network that operates in unexploited or unused radio frequencies and uses cognitive (intellectual) technologies like Artificial Intelligence to enable high-speed, low-latency communication at a pace multiple times faster than 5th generation networks. 6G technology is under development and is yet to be released.
The report: that was published by Guardian, further says that the US was the leader in remaining seven technologies such as vaccines, quantum computing and space launch systems. “Our research reveals that China has built the foundations to position herself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a stunning lead in high-impact research across majority of the critical and emerging technology domains.”
The critical technology tracker shows that, for state-of-the-art technologies, all of the world’s top10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”
The report also said, that across the board, there was “a large gap between China and the US as the two leading countries specifically, and everyone else including a small, second-tier group of countries led by India and the UK and other countries that regularly appear in this group in many technological field including South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less often, Japan.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies included in the tracker, the report added.
However, China was at high risk of establishing a monopoly in eight technologies, including nanoscale materials and manufacturing, hydrogen and ammonia for power, and synthetic biology.
The report said China’s headway in nuclear capable hypersonic missiles in 2021 should not have been a surprise to US intelligence agencies because, according to our data analysis, over the past five years, China has generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonic, and it hosts seven of the world’s top 10 research institutions in this area”.
A hypersonic missile is a weapon capable of travelling at hypersonic speed which is between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound or about 1 to 5 miles per second (1.6 to 8.0 km/s).
It uses air-breathing engines to reach high speeds. The Chinese DF-41 ICBM is reportedly capable of flying up to 30,600 km/h, making it perhaps the fastest ballistic missile in the world today. The Ghaznavi (official codename: Hatf III Ghaznavi) is a hypersonic surface to surface short range ballistic missile designed and developed by the National Development Complex, with the first version in service with the Pakistan Army’s strategic command since 2004.
Hypersonic weapons are extremely difficult to detect, and counter given the weapon’s speed and maneuverability and/or flexibility, low flight paths and unpredictable trajectories. Hypersonic weapons challenge NORAD’s (North American Aerospace Defense Command: a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection for Canada and the continental United States.) ability to provide threat warning and attack assessments for Canada and the United States.
The report express its concerns saying, that “competition and the consequences allow potential risk at times when the world is failing to establish a diplomatic stance”. This may destabilize not only bilateral US-China relations but the whole international environment.
The report added that like all other political and economic spheres, digital sphere is also subjected to regionalization. Even the emergence of alternative joint platforms for the international community (within international organizations) and for diplomatic meetings looks too idealistic now.
The report concluded that:
A dominance in innovation and creation of scientific and technological aspects would also mean an undefeated aggressive country trying to establish control over worldwide markets, labour and diplomacy.
Is there a fear in the back of the minds of those who published this report?
In my opinion, China is a humble country trying to take the world along with her progress as exemplified by Belt and Road Initiative which is one for all. Aggression is unmatched with Chinese President: a key personality behind her progress. This is how I view it while others may have different view point.
That’s all for now dear readers.
See you next week, Bye.
