News on China's scientific and technological development.

FairAndUnbiased said:

Morale really matters in pre industrial warfare, far more than now. My understanding is that the Ming army was demoralized after fighting peasant uprisings for 10+ years, pay not keeping up with inflation since Wanli printed money and debased silver to pay for expedition to Korea, loss of trade with Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese galleons due to rise of North America and Britain, etc.

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China set to hire more ‘virtual’ workers after property developer China Vanke names AI robot a top employee for 2021
•AI-based debt collector Cui Xiaopan was the recipient of China Vanke’s ‘outstanding newcomer award’ for 2021
•China, which plans to be a world leader in AI by 2030, is predicted to deploy more ‘virtual’ employees this year

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China to start building 5G satellite network to challenge Elon Musk’s Starlink
•The project by start-up GalaxySpace aims to compete with the US company by offering high-speed internet services to remote areas
•The constellation of satellites will be far smaller than Starlink’s, but scientists involved in the project say it will offer speeds of up to 500 Mbps

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tonyget said:

I don't think any fabs in China bought SMEE's 90 nm machine，that machine is more or less an technical demonstrator，never enter batch production.

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gadgetcool5 said:

When I plug that into Google translate, it seems to be saying that the SSA600 machine has orders and is out of stock? If true, that would be good news. That is not compatible with it being a technical demonstrator that never entered batch production. I would be curious to see what the supply chain issues were.

It *is* true that before worrying about trying to get to 28nm, they should try to perfect 90nm so that it is actually used. Use is the only way for the feedback mechanism to work and for the product to improve, and for operators to get experience using it. ASML works with its customers who give advice on how to improve the machine and collaborate on R&D. That is how it improves and innovates. As this person says:

"“此番国产设备出货加速，不仅改善相关公司的财务，更意味着其技术和竞争力的提升。”对于国产半导体设备“卖断货”现象，董世敏在接受记者采访时强调，对于半导体设备、材料而言，研发生产出来很重要，但“用起来”更关键，通过使用过程中的经验和反馈，相关厂商可不断改进和提升工艺，在上下游的紧密配合中积累know-how（技术诀窍），技术和销量才能实现相互正反馈。"

Again it's SMIC that dropped the ball if they are not using the SSA600. The SSA600 came out in 2016 and there has been no improvement since then, in another four years it'll be decade with no improvement for China. Given all the sanctions (which the original sanction against ZTE four year anniversary is coming up soon), you would think China would be making this a higher priority. They don't have to do much, but they really need to show, solid, definitive progress that is proven in the market and public enough to be reported on the pages of English-language newspapers, rather than just rumors and rhetoric. Even if it's just taking a crappy 90nm machine and putting it into production at a loss just to get some more experience using it, and then iteratively tweaking it. The West is not standing still either.

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SanWenYu said:

I think you are spot on why Ming could not defeat the Manchus and why the Ming soldiers were demoralized. In the last three decades of Ming dynasty, most of the standing armies of Ming were not well paid, fed, equipped and trained. The empire was in constant financial crisis due to disfunctional government and natural disasters.

But it was not the Wanli (万历皇帝) who printed money on paper. It was the first Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (朱元璋), aka Hongwu (洪武皇帝), who issued the paper notes, known as 大明宝钞 in history. The system had serious flaws in design. The paper notes were not well received in practice. The issuing last only 5 years. The issued paper notes depreciated quickly to being worthless and exit from circulation well before Wanli inherited the throne from his father. By then silver bars (银锭) had already been widely accepted as the most common payment method, in addition to copper coins.

The trade with Europeans, and the large silver inflow surplus as a result, continued into Qing. The Qing empire had trade surplus until the first Opium War or even later.

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Tam said:

The first dynasty to print money like nuts was the Song Dynasty. They invented paper money and as a result invented the first inflation of a FIAT currency. This was because they had to finance their desperate campaigns against the Jins and later the Mongols.

The second dynasty to print money like nuts was the Yuan Dynasty. They inherited all the techs the Song had, and for a while they were prosperous. But after the golden age of Kublai Khan, they faced a series of factors coming together at one time --- totally incompetent leadership coming at an age of climate crisis and plagues. Kind of like the US under Trump, except you can't vote the bad administration out and had to be forcibly removed by force. The combination of corruption, natural disasters and revolutions forced the Yuan to print money like there is no tomorrow and that was what happened to them.

This wasn't the first case of recorded inflation in history. The Roman Empire, because of its wars and its overspending on the military and luxury goods --- especially for a Chinese import called Silk --- took their currency, melted it down, mixed cheaper and cheaper metals to them and reissued them. The coinage gradually became worthless.

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