Re: U.S. sanctions inadvertently sharpen China's edge

In article <492918d802457f4eda22e90b0156cb94@www.novabbs.com>,
ltlee1 <ltlee1@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hail to Confucianism based Educational Exceptionalism:
大学之道，在明明德，在亲民，在止于至善（Very Bad Google Translate: The way of a university
is to manifest the bright virtue, to be close to the people, and to stop
at the highest good.）
>
"How? Jörg Wuttke, a former longtime president of the E.U. Chamber of
Commerce in China, calls it “the China fitness club,” and it works like
this:
>
China starts with an emphasis on STEM education — science, technology,
engineering and math. Each year, the country produces some 3.5 million
STEM graduates, about equal the number of graduates from associate,
bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. programs in all disciplines in the United
States.
>
When you have that many STEM graduates, you can throw more talent at any
problem than anyone else. As the Times Beijing bureau chief, Keith
Bradsher, reported last year: “China has 39 universities with programs
to train engineers and researchers for the rare earths industry.
Universities in the United States and Europe have mostly offered only
occasional courses.” （I Just Saw the Future. It Was Not in America.
Thomas L. Friedman April 2, 2025）

This is true. Of course China has a lot more STEM graduates; it has a lot more people. Still, that is an advantage.
Also, it's only natural that China should train so many people in the rare earths industry; they have 70% of the
world's production and far more reserves than anyone else (Brazil is a distant second). Still, that is also an
advantage.

https://www.newsweek.com/map-countries-largest-rare-earth-reserves-china-greenland-ukraine-2040424

Might as include the paragraph before the ones quoted:

"But you’re also wrong if you think that China only cheated its way to global manufacturing dominance.
It did cheat, copy and force technology transfers. But what makes China’s manufacturing juggernaut so powerful today is
not that it just makes things cheaper; it makes them cheaper, faster, better, smarter and increasingly infused with
A.I."

and after:

"And while many Chinese engineers may not graduate with M.I.T.-level skills, the best are world class, and there are a
lot of them. There are 1.4 billion people there. That means that in China, when you are a one-in-a-million talent,
there are 1,400 other people just like you.

Just as important, Chinese vocational schools graduate tens of thousands of electricians, welders, carpenters,
mechanics and plumbers every year, so when someone has an idea for a new product and wants to throw up a factory, it
can get built really fast. You need a pink polka dot button that can sing the Chinese national anthem backward? Someone
here will have it for you by tomorrow. It will also get delivered fast. Over 550 Chinese cities are connected by
high-speed rail that makes our Amtrak Acela look like the Pony Express.

And when you relentlessly digitize and connect everything to everything, you can get in and out of your hotel room
fast with just facial recognition. Tech-savvy beggars who carry printouts of QR codes can accept donations fast by the
scan of a cellphone. The whole system is set up for speed — including if you challenge the rule of the Communist Party,
in which case, you will be arrested fast, given the security cameras everywhere, and disappear fast."

It all sounds good for the Chinese people, except that bit about disappearing if you challenge the government. Trump
would like to make the US like that, but even his MAGA supporters will rebel against that - hopefully. And the
legislative and judicial branches are not rubber stamps for the executive branch's efforts to turn the US into North
Korea or China. At least not yet.