Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Well responding to Li Keqiang challenge TISCO(Taiyuan Iron and Steel co) respond to the challenge and successfully made the steel Here is the video
Chinese Economics Thread
- Thread starter Norfolk
- Start date
Surprising isn't it. It is reported that China spends about 15 million USD to import the said steel annually. The market is rather small and full with well established competitors. So it is perhaps not enough incentive for the Chinese steel makers to invest in this R&D.
lol, finally they acquired technology to produce ball pens! After just 5 years (!) of trying. Now to the tests (and I wouldn't be surprised if those wouldn't go wrong). Soviets were smart with pencils when they sent people into the space, I wonder what keeps China from conquering the Sun?
Perhaps US embargo on something else.
That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.
And still (2,3mm vs 0,4mm in the 'West') some 500% behind...
Some things are not worth bothering about or fast tracking .I would not be surprised if this was one of them.
Shouldn't be a surprise, if there isn't a big enough domestic market demand for high quality pens it makes sense that there isn't a big domestic industry for it until otherwise directed or until the market demand shifts.
China didn't seriously try to produce domestic supercomputer processors until there was enough demand and requirements for it either. Same logic. Same goes for smart phones -- domestic companies only started to put out higher quality products once they realized there was a market for it. So on and so forth.
Not every case of lack of production of a certain component, subsystem, or product is due to an inability to produce it, but may often be related to more nuanced factors like market demand and efficiency.
Sure, not a thing to bother. You had to buy a 'Western' (Japanese (sic!), Swiss or Italian) ball pens if you would like to ever write hanzi in a recognisable way. Indeed, nothing to worry about (and yet the Party did bother after all!). I wonder what laughs they got in the past when people laughed (and still be laughing).
Well - it wasn't.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Cost $15 million per year for the entire country of China to purchase pen points. You tell me what's the rush to get this done.
The tests are already run. The point wrote for 800m without breaks in the line. Apparently, they call that the gold standard. You didn't think they'd be desperate for attention like you and start running their mouths without knowing that it works first, did you?
"I wonder what laughs they got in the past when people laughed (and still be laughing)"
LOL What's this? English? Worry about that before you worry about pens. Don't you feel pathetically insecure trying to bring people down for an achievement? Any achievement is a step forward; even if it doesn't get someone to lead the world in that area, it's still patching a former weakness and makes the country more competitive as a whole.
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I think it probably was.
The market demand and strategic need for high quality pen ball bearings probably isn't exactly that great, and they could've happily continued importing them if it didn't become a topic of social and political interest.
Frankly I'm pretty doubtful as to the usefulness of producing these indigenously -- unless these ball bearings are applicable in other products or if the technology involved in producing them can be applied in the manufacture of other goods, it seems like a bit of a waste of money to try and develop a local industry in this potentially quite niche area.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Apparently, it cost $8.6 million to develop and can save $15 mill a year... It's the small things that add up, Blitzo! Not everyone in China can bring in earth-shattering technologies worth tens of billions of dollars but it doesn't mean the small things don't count. Add them up, everyone do as much as you can, consider the number of people in China who can contribute, and you get progress by the leaps and bounds!
Yep, if it made financial sense to localize this, or if it could have additional benefits in other domains, then by all means it was a sensible investment.