Meanwhile semiconductor investment is booming. Fantastic news. Chinese STEM youth need to channel their talents toward hardware, AI and engineering, not flappy bird apps and league of legends mobile ripoffs.
News on China's scientific and technological development.
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There seriously need to be a different label for these type of industry sectors that only create internet platforms like social media, and multimedia products like video games.
Yep, this piece basically sums it up. A very illuminating read about China's direction under Xi:
So many talented people in the west are expending themselves on useless things like modelling ad clicks for social media sites or finance (moving money from one pile to another, investment bankers don't create anything of value) because its the most profitable undertaking they can engage in. China must not waste its talent in the same way.
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The key to good leadership is knowing what to moderate, when to moderate, how much to moderate. Youtube is an infinitely better platform and arguably a need to have like Wechat then something like Instagram or Tik Tok.
Alright ignoring fintech and ecommerce since both are actually need to haves, even stuff like Tik Tok have worthwhile science and tech merits. The machine learning developed by Tik Tok is an example that elevates the value of the company and its technical efforts well over shit like Instagram. All of them are excellent data collection tools though as if they need to exist for that in the age of Facebook... Google.
While it's good that some leaders are actually leading and doing something, maybe too much austerity and fear in how minds are allowed to be put to use isn't necessarily a good thing. Definitely not beyond a certain point but smart people being allowed to explore is invaluable. Even if it's tinkering with nice to haves and "useless" money maker endeavors. I appreciate the acknowledgement that there's a definite distinction between an economy built on Tik Toks, instagrams, flappy birds, Amazons etc and an economy built on the Huaweis, CATLs, Boeings, Microsofts, Toshibas... but China has already placed much more emphasis on the second category and is arguably stifling people a little too much. I don't know how bad the gaming situation is in China. Seems to me more like lazy parenting and people who don't know how to properly encourage children to study and pursue the "more worthwhile" careers. If there's gaming abuse, perhaps they should try answering why rather than outright limiting gaming. It's a shitty waste of time but shitty timewasters are often conducive to better psychological health and overall productivity.
Alright ignoring fintech and ecommerce since both are actually need to haves, even stuff like Tik Tok have worthwhile science and tech merits. The machine learning developed by Tik Tok is an example that elevates the value of the company and its technical efforts well over shit like Instagram. All of them are excellent data collection tools though as if they need to exist for that in the age of Facebook... Google.
While it's good that some leaders are actually leading and doing something, maybe too much austerity and fear in how minds are allowed to be put to use isn't necessarily a good thing. Definitely not beyond a certain point but smart people being allowed to explore is invaluable. Even if it's tinkering with nice to haves and "useless" money maker endeavors. I appreciate the acknowledgement that there's a definite distinction between an economy built on Tik Toks, instagrams, flappy birds, Amazons etc and an economy built on the Huaweis, CATLs, Boeings, Microsofts, Toshibas... but China has already placed much more emphasis on the second category and is arguably stifling people a little too much. I don't know how bad the gaming situation is in China. Seems to me more like lazy parenting and people who don't know how to properly encourage children to study and pursue the "more worthwhile" careers. If there's gaming abuse, perhaps they should try answering why rather than outright limiting gaming. It's a shitty waste of time but shitty timewasters are often conducive to better psychological health and overall productivity.
Then where is China's Boeing? Where is China's SpaceX? Autodesk? Nvidia? China has its own versions of these companies but nowhere near as advanced. I'm sorry but TikTok isn't going to turn China into a tech superpower. CATL and Huawei are worth infinitely more to the CCP than Tencent and Alibaba despite holding less market cap. There is overinvestment in the nice to have category and underinvestment in the necessary to have category.
Yeah ... that's because when the US was building its third generation of aircraft carriers, landing people on the moon, developing computing etc China was recovering from being hooked on opium and the industrial base in the bottom of the barrel.
You think developing matured top tier tech industries is an overnight thing?
I'm not advocating for more Tik Tok or China focusing more effort on the likes of tech companies similar to Tik Tok etc. I personally much prefer that second category. Of which China's started and five decades later, it already has about two dozen top tier tech organisations/businesses which in a few cases actually dominate, share lead or individually lead in their field - quantum computing, shipbuilding, chip design (although not fab yet), supercomputing, software/AI, electronics, telecommunications, fintech, solar panels, wind turbine tech, batteries tech, space related tech, manufacturing! and so on. It's not even shabby in heaps of other fields which now include auto industry, transport (particularly high speed rail tech of this current gen and the next). All the emphasis I see is in that second category and all the strengths are also here. The exception to this is Tik Tok but the Americans have youtube, Facebook, instagram and garbage like onlyfans and whatnot.
I certainly think manufacturing especially high tech manufacturing is the key to genuine economic progress rather than that former category stuff. I just question the direction and without addressing the causes of ills and only the symptoms. Young people gaming too much, limit gaming time, don't ask why that's happening and whether there are better ways to parent and organise the structure of society. That sort of attitude results in a Japan like fked up foundations. This active micromanagement of preferences is sort of similar isn't it? personal beliefs. I'm partial to libertarian beliefs on this whereas China like pretty much every other east Asian culture is "strict parent" approach.
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I'm curious, what do you think is the solution for video game addiction? Because, I don't see any other way to tackle it other than limiting game time. My uncle deliberately gave his son an old phone, which doesn't have WIFI connectivity and games, to prevent him from getting a video game addiction. The kid is a lot younger than me, but is more smarter and talented than me, meanwhile I spent a good portion of my childhood playing video games and failing or barely passing classes, except in ones I'm interested in.
Video games have a therapeutic benefit, but often kids don't have the self-control and haven't learned how to time management yet. Which ends up with them overplaying, developing into habit, then turned into a video game addiction. Sure, that parents can be blamed, but most of them are busy these days with work, and have no time or the mental fortitude to keep looking after their children. So why not put limits on it, but I do agree the time shouldn't be decided by the government, should instead make it mandatory for parental guidance settings be installed into games, for them to control the limit on their own.
Getting really off topic and several posts in now so last post on this just to share my opinion and answer you. I think the more you restrict something to young people/children, the more they feel an inclination toward it and potentially abuse it. Of course this doesn't mean the reverse isn't true. Giving free rein almost certainly translates to losing the average and a net loss compared to your strategy. But here's where really good moderation and leadership shows up. China brute forces its way through a lot of problems. It honestly lacks a lot of finesse in politics.
Maybe the Chinese government is actually right in taking this move. The cost of not doing it could be much worse than doing it. My earlier point was a general expression of doubt on that method and restricting industry is a step I think is a little too far ... in my opinion and I'm probably wrong. Let's just remember that many eventually worthwhile things develop from things that were considered "a waste of time". The main issue I have with this is mostly the restricting China's industries. I think there is enough room for all of that and good stuff could come out of the Tik Toks of the tech world.
As for the conversation on how to limit gaming if that's the desire, it's my opinion that Chinese parenting culture places a bit too much emphasis on the "learning is hard and uncomfortable" kind of attitude where kids need to be forced otherwise they won't do. This is true to an extent and probably why China's so much better than average. Where it fails is this method often extinguishing a genuine love for learning and restricting the outlier genius by placing undue force on them during important formative years. It could even be later than that and the overall more forceful nature of how the society is can limit individuals because they are pressured away from what they might be exceptional at, and more towards whatever makes them more money, is a more stable career, or is just preferred by whatever - their parents, the gov, friends, wives, husbands etc. Plus the whole rote learning + academic achievement culture, while nowhere near as caricatured as some western people make it out to be for China, it does often produce children and people who are a little too focused on only a few things; grades, university, career, income. It doesn't really focus on actually producing real academics, real intellectuals, and really talented people in their preferred and naturally gifted ways.
The evidence for my opinion is in the per capita measures of IP, papers, citations etc. While China's nominally excellent, it ought to be because of sheer size and it's relatively developed now. It still falls far short compared to the fully developed and industrialised nations when it absolute should be comparable (since they all are once a certain level is reached). Most of these nations don't push their kids as hard, don't limit their gaming and don't micromanage their paths and choices. Yet they produce far more per capita.
China's strategy seems to be to lift the average performance and agreeableness higher. The sheer number of genius level would be comparable even with stifling policies (assumed here). Overall win. Western strategy seems to be, almost everyone sucks and the average is really shit but the groundbreakers are allowed free rein to maximise their abilities. The society is pulled up by the very top tier whereas China wants the society to travel up together with a top tier that's comparable in size only due to sheer population. I suppose that's a safer bet indeed but it's certainly much less "romantic" and adventurous or daring. Same as the whole "hold America's ass to cross the river" sort of attitude. lol.
One would not expect China to overtake US in everything. There will always be something the US is good at, this applies to every country.
It wasn't too long ago that Shenzhen was just a fishing village and no Chinese owned a car. Even getting enough foods to eat was a struggle.
Now that they have CATL, byd, Huawei, space station, J20, Beidou in just a short time, without people living in the streets. Enough said.
China has 1.4 billion people, a society that places high value on knowledge and learning, and a strong STEM culture. The average Chinese kid in 2022 thrashes the average US kid in math, science, and sometimes even english standards. US is 300 million tinfoil hat wearing science denying fat f*cks being dragged across the finish line by the top 0.05%, of which a substantial portion is imported talent. In the long long run, I fully expect China to overtake US in everything except COVID deaths. In the long long run, with the advantages China holds in size, culture, and governance, she has absolutely zero business being the lesser tech power of the two.