Based on my observations
Areas where China is years behind
Engines, for planes and rockets
Satellite mega constellations
Heavy lift rockets, super heavy lift rockets and reusable rockets
Astronomy, space science, ground/space telescopes
Theoretical physics
Optic systems
Lithography
Certain pieces of software like operating systems
Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment
GMO crops/GMO animals/livestock
Geothermal energy
Deep earth drilling, fracking, deep earth science
Areas where China is slightly behind
Nanotechnology
Engines for automobiles and ships
Exotic materials like graphene, carbon nanotubes, high-entropy alloys, superconductors
CNC machines
Avionics
Material science
Biotech in general
Vaccines
Synthetic biology and genetic engineering
Metallurgy
Quantum computing
Pharmaceutics
Areas where China is neck and neck with America/The West
Chemical industry and processing
Biofuels
Radar
Industrial robots
Large scale computing/supercomputing
Areas where China has a slight edge
3rd gen nuclear
Automation
Electronics
Humanoid robotics
A.I/LLMs
High precision high strength electric motors
3D printing
Areas where China is years ahead
Commercial drones
Solar PV
Wind turbines
Advanced nuclear
Batteries
5G
Rare earth mining and processing
Hypersonic missiles
Quantum communications
Hydrogen economy
Green hydrogen and hydrogen electrolysis
Solid rocket motors
Ultra high voltage transmission
High speed trains and maglev trains
Shipbuilding, especially of the high end ships like LNG carriers
Pumped hydro and hydropower
Electric vehicles
i would say, decent post from you but still lacking some latest information. so i will correct you here.
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Engines, for planes and rockets
in Rocket engines, its Russia who is actually the global leader but USA/China more or less same in this category or US is slightly ahead but China is almost there but not years behind. i m strictly talking about Rocket engine tech.
now comes to planes. you need to specify this.
in Military sector, China is rapidly closing the gap.
but yeah civilian sector is a different story. this is where your infrastructure/certification plays significant role. commercialization matter the most so this always takes time. no other choice.. but if you talk about technology. China has fully conquered turbofan engine process.
CJ-1000/CJ-2000 are world class machines. CJ-1000 is about to enter in the market.
this is not true.
Weichai Power has the best automobile engine technology in the world. it maybe surprise for you. but its reality. Weichai Power is largely an unknown company but hold 35 percent market share.
they announced the world's first diesel engine with a thermal efficiency of
53.09%
Deep earth drilling, fracking, deep earth science
China's landmark deep-Earth borehole drilling exceeds 10,000 meters
World's second deepest borehole with domestically produced drilling system, machine and entire set up.
Semiconductors and semiconductor equipment
EDA = done and currently using in advance process
Photoresists = 14nm and below chemicals successfully produced and delivery started too.
Etching , Optical equipment , Ion implanter , Metrology equipment , testing equipment , measurement equipment and many more.. from 28nm to 7nm all these tools successfully developed and most of these tools delivered. some are in verification stages.
just today news came out if you visit semi thread, YMTC reached on 200 layers in NAND flash memory with most of tools came from local companies like AMEC/NAURA. this is big big news
i agreed that, China is still behind in advanced semi equipment but the gap is rapidly closing.
China right now is very close to global leaders in optics industry.
China's DUVi/EUV both machines have optical system/lens/mirror provided by local companies. outside Japan/Germany and China i don't see any other country can manufacture Litho optical system.
in advance optics and photonics, China is not only making the optics. They are making the ultra-precise machines that make ultra precision optics.
as per the WIPO, China is second only to Japan in Patents grants in Optics category. the gap is so narrow that, China will surpass Japan by this year end.
just one example,
CIOMP have successfully created the world’s largest SiC aspheric mirror, which boasts an impressive diameter of 4 meters.. this is so technological complex.. They also made innovations in advanced manufacturing technologies needed for the manufacturing of SiC mirrors.
This post is already too Long
Part2 coming...
