Thalassemia cured; Submarines detected; Six-second steel; Hypersonic passenger plane; Genes unchanged in 3000 years; Taklamakan green belt completed.
Science & Technology
Above: Tsinghua’s Ram-Rotor Detonation Engine, RRDE, addresses the limitations of previous approaches.
SpaceSail launched #54 of its Thousand Sails constellation, each weighing 300kg.
CAST’s Tianjin satellite production line reached its design capacity of 100 per year.
Transformer Base Editing (tBE) cures acute thalassemia. A 14-year-old Fudan boy no longer needs blood transfusions after his hemoglobin increased to normal levels.
3,600 times faster: high-purity steel in 3 – 6 seconds. Cuts energy 70%, eliminates coal. Vortex lance injects ore particles into a furnace, causing an explosive oxidative reaction. In production.
A prototype hypersonic passenger plane reached Mach 6.56 for 20 minutes– Beijing to New York in two hours. The design – a fat body with cape-like wings – can provide large cabin space at extreme speeds.
The Tianyan-504 quantum computer features a 504-qubit chip, Xiaohong, that rivals IBM’s in qubit lifetime and readout fidelity. It will integrate with China Telecom’s quantum cloud platform, which has 12 million visitors from 50 countries.
Global chip sales hit $600 billion, half produced in China. 70% could come from China by the end of 2026, since its chip industry’s annual growth exceeds 20%.
90% of the world’s applications run on Chinese-made processors, from smart toasters to bulldozers to autos.
Chinese antimony exports fall 97%. Germanium and gallium were already restricted. Could the US proxy wars grind to a halt due to mineral disruptions? A 20% cut in refined materials will cut global chip production 34%. And China can get 3–14 nm chips easier than the US can get a Refined Materials Supply chain.
“China’s de-facto export prohibition on critical minerals is causing profoundly great impacts on Japan’s economy,” says Japan’s Minister for Economic Policy, Banri Kaieda.
Economy
100-minute video dramas–serialized into 1-2 minute episodes for vertical viewing on phones—has surpassed theater box office. 3-7-21 rule: 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention; 7 seconds to secure engagement; 21 seconds to establish your message.
China’s 120,000 cross-border e-commerce enterprises’ revenues grew 11.5% YoY while the country builds smart logistics platforms overseas.
Russia-China Bilateral Trade hits $243 Billion. China-EU Rail Freight Relies on Russian Transit.
Of 56 companies listed on the HK Stock Exchange, 79% have no foreign bank sponsors compared to 50% in 2022.
EV battery packs costing $115/kWh in 2024, will cost $100 per kWh by 2026, which is price parity with ICE vehicles.
China controls unprecedented 65% of global shipbuilding orders, which have grown 170% this decade, stretching its lead over its nearest shipbuilding rivals.
Society
The Education Ministry’ ‘Several Measures to Further Strengthen Teachers’ Political, Social and Professional Status,’ focused on teachers’ remuneration and urban housing.
HIV plan to bring infection rate below 0.2% by 2030.
Abducted as an infant in 1999 and reunited with his rich biological family in 2022, he rejected lavish gifts and requested just a marital home. He aims to marry his girlfriend and build an independent life.
In 3,000 years, there has been no major genetic shift in the people of the Central Plain.
People in Zhejiang fermented mijiu, a rice wine, 10,000 years ago, revealing “the complexity and innovation of early rice wine brewing”.
Archaeologists discovered silk at the Sanxingdui ruins, which the ancient Shu State used in rituals 3,000 years ago to ‘communicate between heaven and earth’.
Environment
After 46 years, 3,000-km Taklamakan desert green belt is completed. The Great Green Wall involved 580,000 people planting 30 million hectares of trees. 26.8% of China’s land is still classified as desertified, down from 27.2% a decade ago. Yikes.
Governance
Private pension scheme expands nationwide from 36 pilot cities. The voluntary supplementary insurance allows citizens to contribute up to 12,000 yuan, $1,670, annually to individual pension accounts and enjoy deferred taxation.
I am more worried about the US than about China. China has A (scientists) and C (manufacturing), the US has B (finance). If you shut down trade, then China has to figure out how to connect A and C, whereas the US has to figure out how to build A and C. I think that the US is going to have a much more painful time of it.
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China has dismantled over 100 underground banks; traced $11.1 billion in illicit financial transactions; taken down 263 criminal groups engaged in human trafficking, fraud and illegal detention.
Geopolitics
The Pivot to Asia delayed again. Syria and Ukraine will involve Trump there and give China time to build its sphere of influence.
“China is not simply making inroads in Africa by cultivating elites—it is genuinely popular. Positive views of China in sub-Saharan Africa have outweighed negative views by 3:1 across nearly 300 surveys.”
Congress has just passed the Crucial Communism Teaching Act that redesigns the public school curriculum around anti-communism. (There is growing public support for socialism).
Two months ago, Syria applied to join BRICS and rejoined the Arab League. Last year, China gave Bashar al-Assad a hero’s welcome. Syria joined the BRI and talked of joining the SCO and planned its reconstruction with China and Russia while supporting Palestine. The US and its proxies could not accept this situation.
Syria is not on the overland BRI and produces only 0.05% of global oil. China-Syria trade amounted to just $358 million in 2023, or 0.006% of the total.
Defense
Submarines detected hundreds of meters below the surface using sources in the sky emitting ELF waves. Ground-based technical verification has been completed.
The world’s first single-photon Raman lidar system detects objects 1,000 m. below the sea surface. Single-photon Raman lidar systems currently provide data for weather, climate and air quality monitoring.
CAS’s new hyper-sampling imaging technology enhances image quality now that CCD and CMOS image sensors have reached their pixel resolution limits.
Chinese strikes on airfields will stymie USAF if there is a conflict in the Indo-Pacific. The United States should invest in cheap, uncrewed aircraft and runway repair capabilities. Bases inside the first island chain are in range of thousands of Chinese missiles.
