News on China's scientific and technological development.

ZeEa5KPul said:

I seriously doubt this. Lithium concentration in seawater is far too low to be worth extracting. The concentration of sodium exceeds lithium by 350,000x.

To put this in perspective, it would take roughly 5x global desalination capacity to process enough water to extract as much lithium as China produced in 2022, and China's a pretty small player in lithium mining.

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I could see it as a minor supplement to the global supply. Hopefully lithium becomes less and less needed as sodium ion batteries start getting more popular. One way it could be done economically is to bundle all seawater extraction projects in one plant.

When you desalination seawater, you already have to pump millions of tons of seawater inland and filter it, producing a concentrated brine. Instead of dumping this brine straight back into the oceans, you use this concentrated brine to extract uranium, bromine, gold, lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and whatever valuable minerals or elements that you need. This would save cost, since you're already pumping so much water inland, might as well do something with the brine before dumping it into the ocean, not to mention that you're already filtering the water for bio-fouling and as concentrated brine, it should be easier to extract whatever minerals or elements you need since the concentration should be much higher than seawater.

Of course in practice I have no idea if all this extraction processes will play nice with each other, seeing as some of them will need chemical treatment that may interfere with each other. I only know that lithium extraction needs an active electrochemical process and that uranium extraction involves fibermats that can absorb uranium passively. But it could save a lot of cost, if you're getting fresh water and a few other important industrial elements/compound out of your brine rather than just lithium.

If they do it this way, they could piggyback off China's growing desalination capacity and plants.

siegecrossbow said:

Would it be considered SeeSeePee sponsored organ harvesting if anyone actually sold his/her kidney to buy this as many suggested in the comments?

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I'm disappointed that when Optimus transformed into truck mode, his trailer didn't show up.

China's first self developed F-class 50-megawatt heavy-duty gas turbine generator set, G50, recently completed a 72+24-hour trial run in Qingyuan, Guangdong, and was officially put into commercial operation.

This was developed by Dongfeng electric

There has a been a lot of development in sodium ion batteries in China over the last month or so. Currently your average sodium ion battery is 150wh/kg, with the most advanced versions being 200wh/kg. Compared to current LFP batteries at 160-170wh/kg. This means that they're enough for most of the EV market, only large trucks and supercars will need NMC batteries. And of course grid scale storage will naturally shift 100% to sodium over lithium. Sodium is not only cheaper, but much much easier to access and mine. Anyone with access to the ocean has basically an infinite supply of cheap sodium and it's a thousand times more common in the earth's crust. Of course it will make another decade to fully build out the TWH scale factories to supply the world, but once they do, I can see them basically taking over the market like how lithium-ion took over lead acid.

I can't wait for the West to realize that China has basically beaten them to another important battery chemistry again. I also can't wait for them to accuse China of exploiting African nations of trying to steal their precious and rare sodium... and realize that all the claims of China trying to steal lithium doesn't compute with China efforts of making lithium much less valuable. I remember the same confusion a few years back, when they were trying to say that China was exploiting the DRC for their cobalt, this was before the fact that most chinese EVs were using LFP batteries that didn't need cobalt was mainstream news. This days, nobody rags on China for cobalt and has moved on to complaining about Chinese position over lithium mining, especially in African countries.

I also see some African themselves saying that China is exploiting them for lithium and calling them to get out, but the moment China actually starts to de-invest or buying less lithium from them due to this new battery chemistry, they will cry and beg China to not pull out of the country. Same for Australia, they complain about China buying so much of their lithium, but they will cry when China starts buying less.

I realize that the reason why China has moved so fast in sodium ion and LFP batteries while the West has lagged behind is that America and Europe only cares about the best tech. They see 150wh/kg, and they lose all interest, going for the more energy dense batteries like NMC or next gen battery tech like lithium sulfur that has 250wh/kg and above. They only want the best, most interesting soundbitey statistic that sounds good to customers. They don't care about anything else. Hence their surprise when LFP started taking over.

America also doesn't realize that you don't need a 100 kilowatt hour tesla with 900km range for daily life, most chinese are happy with a small mini-car with a 20 kilowatt hour battery that can go 200km on a single charge, which suits LFP and sodim ion perfectly. Their shock at the wuling mini EV popularity was amazing to see.

tacoburger said:

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There has a been a lot of development in sodium ion batteries in China over the last month or so. Currently your average sodium ion battery is 150wh/kg, with the most advanced versions being 200wh/kg. Compared to current LFP batteries at 160-170wh/kg. This means that they're enough for most of the EV market, only large trucks and supercars will need NMC batteries. And of course grid scale storage will naturally shift 100% to sodium over lithium. Sodium is not only cheaper, but much much easier to access and mine. Anyone with access to the ocean has basically an infinite supply of cheap sodium and it's a thousand times more common in the earth's crust. Of course it will make another decade to fully build out the TWH scale factories to supply the world, but once they do, I can see them basically taking over the market like how lithium-ion took over lead acid.

I can't wait for the West to realize that China has basically beaten them to another important battery chemistry again. I also can't wait for them to accuse China of exploiting African nations of trying to steal their precious and rare sodium... and realize that all the claims of China trying to steal lithium doesn't compute with China efforts of making lithium much less valuable. I remember the same confusion a few years back, when they were trying to say that China was exploiting the DRC for their cobalt, this was before the fact that most chinese EVs were using LFP batteries that didn't need cobalt was mainstream news. This days, nobody rags on China for cobalt and has moved on to complaining about Chinese position over lithium mining, especially in African countries.

I also see some African themselves saying that China is exploiting them for lithium and calling them to get out, but the moment China actually starts to de-invest or buying less lithium from them due to this new battery chemistry, they will cry and beg China to not pull out of the country. Same for Australia, they complain about China buying so much of their lithium, but they will cry when China starts buying less.

I realize that the reason why China has moved so fast in sodium ion and LFP batteries while the West has lagged behind is that America and Europe only cares about the best tech. They see 150wh/kg, and they lose all interest, going for the more energy dense batteries like NMC or next gen battery tech like lithium sulfur that has 250wh/kg and above. They only want the best, most interesting soundbitey statistic that sounds good to customers. They don't care about anything else. Hence their surprise when LFP started taking over.

America also doesn't realize that you don't need a 100 kilowatt hour tesla with 900km range for daily life, most chinese are happy with a small mini-car with a 20 kilowatt hour battery that can go 200km on a single charge, which suits LFP and sodim ion perfectly. Their shock at the wuling mini EV popularity was amazing to see.

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Probably why Chinese government didn't make that much fuss compared to Tiktok core algo when joint ev battery production venture with Americans were finalized by Chinese counterparts

Serious business has started


China has raced ahead of the pack in filing patents in nuclear fusion technology, pointing to its ambition to master the science and take the lead in the development of an alternative to fossil fuels.

China came first in a nuclear fusion patent ranking compiled by Tokyo-based research company astamuse -- partly owned by Nikkei -- ahead of second-placed U.S., which was followed by the U.K. and Japan.

The research company ranked 30 countries and regions by studying the 1,133 patents filed between 2011 and September 2022. Each country's score was calculated by using the number of patents filed, the feasibility of each innovation, and the remaining period of exclusivity, among others.

China was also ranked first in the number of patents, and companies and research institutions that had filed patents in the nuclear fusion field. The number of patents filed by China started to increase from 2015, pushing the country ahead of the U.S.

Chinese patents were concentrated in the area of practical applications, such as the creation of a ceramic composite material that can be used in the wall of a nuclear fusion reactor. This technology was developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is considered the most important breakthrough in the survey period.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences was ranked second among the organizations covered in the survey, followed by the Southwestern Institute of Physics, an affiliate of China National Nuclear Corp.

Nuclear fusion refers to the energy released from fusing two hydrogen nuclei. The process requires a reactor that can withstand extreme temperatures, in excess of 100 million C, and one that can allow the nuclei to collide with each other.

This process is sometimes described as "creating a sun on Earth" as it replicates the nuclear fusion reactions at the core of the star. The creation of this energy typically requires tritium and deuterium -- isotopes of hydrogen -- as fuel. In theory, the technology should be able to generate energy equivalent to that produced by 8 tons of oil from just one gram of fuel.

Nuclear fusion reaction stops once fuel runs out and it does not release carbon dioxide in its production. Proponents claim that tritium and deuterium can be obtained from seawater and, therefore, their supply is infinite.

In December, U.S. scientists announced , saying that they have produced more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in.

Japan is also developing the technology, in partnership with countries including the U.S. and China as part of the international nuclear fusion research project ITER.

"China's strategy appears to move before others do. It is making steady progress," said Kunihiko Okano, visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo. "China is developing an experimental reactor without waiting for results from ITER experiments."

The reactor has a practical design that allows easy maintenance, Okano said, adding that China has set aside a healthy budget for the program.

The U.S. ranked second in overall patent score as well as in the number of patents. Seven U.S. companies and institutions made it into the top 20 organizations, the highest among the countries studied.

Commercial companies have led nuclear fusion research in the U.S., including Helion Energy, ranked 12th, and Google at 18th. Helion has patents in efficient power generation from nuclear fusion. Google appears to be working on developing devices to speed up nuclear fusion experiments.

The U.S. was dominant in nuclear fusion research until around 2010. Under President Joe Biden, the government is now stepping up research support to help commercialize nuclear fusion technologies. In September, it announced a plan to offer $50 million in additional financial support.

Japan's Hamamatsu Photonics and Toyota Motor each came in at fifth and seventh in the ranking of organizations.

Hamamatsu Photonics has expertise in laser technologies, such as in striking laser beams at nuclei and using lasers to increase energy levels in fusion reactions. Toyota is a partner in Hamamatsu Photonics' research. All 13 patents from Toyota were filed jointly with Hamamatsu Photonics.

Topping the corporate and organization ranking was British startup Tokamak Energy. The Oxfordshire-based company is the first private company to achieve a plasma temperature of 100 million C in 2022.

China dominates global tech race – report​

Beijing has a “stunning lead” over the US in most crucial technologies, according to researcher ASPI

China is leading the world in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies, a Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) study on Thursday. According to the security think tank, Beijing has now positioned itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower.

ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker covers a range of crucial fields spanning defense, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and key quantum technology areas. The report pointed out that in some fields, all of the world's top 10 research institutions are based in China.

It also found that a key area in which China excels is defense and space-related technologies. “China’s strides in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles reportedly took US intelligence by surprise in August 2021,” ASPI stated.

It indicated that over the past five years, China generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics.

The study, which was funded by the US State Department, found that the United States was often second-ranked in that race, although it led global research in high-performance computing, quantum computing and vaccines. “Our dataset reveals that there’s a large gap between China and the US, as the leading two countries, and everyone else,” it stressed.

“Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs,” the report concluded, calling for greater research investment by those governments.

So big A.I news


So tencent a new project team, named “HunyuanAide”, to focus on the development of conversational AI products similar to ChatGPT. The aim is to improve Tencent's smart assistant tools and create a smart assistant that can set the industry standard in China. Will probably be integrated into wechat and what other plaform that tencent has.

We plan to embed ERNIE Bot into Baidu Search first. We believe this will reshape information generation and presentation, and create a new entry point for the next-generation internet.
In the future, we will also integrate ERNIE Bot into Xiaodu, which will allow Xiaodu to significantly upgrade all the smart devices and services.
We plan to make these technologies widely available to our customers, developers and ecosystem partners to help boost productivity across industries.
For intelligent driving, we plan to integrate ERNIE Bot into our auto solutions, further enhancing user experience.

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Baidu plans to integrate ERNIE into all their products, even their self driving cars.


The chinese government is planning on embracing GTP technology wholesale and using it is many levels of society.


ByteDance is also building it's own large A.I language model. Again, will probably be integrated into all their digital products.

All this is big news, wechat is used for so many things already, I can't imagine how useful a ChatGTP assistant would be if it was integrated into the platform. And of course there's Baidu, ByteDance and probably a dozen companies working on their own versions. The chinese government will probably also develop their own and integrate it into their myriad of government services.

There would be a large surge in productively in most areas of work and daily life. There will be issues that need to be ironed out or even never fixed, cheating on homework, censorship issues, people being too reliance on A.I etc etc. So expect a bumpy few years ahead of us. And this tech is so new, I fully expect there to be thousands of potential uses for this technology that haven't even been thought of yeah. And of course, the underlying tech will only improve from here.



I haven't used chatGTP much myself but this post showcases how potentially useful one can be, intergrated into a search engine. It's like having a human assistant helping you out.

China now publishes more high-quality science than any other nation – should the US be worried?​

By at least one measure, China now . My research shows that Chinese scholars now publish globally than scientists from any other country.

China’s share of South Korean technology exports fell to the lowest level in more than 13 years, suggesting reduced reliance on Korean intermediate goods