On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, a delegation of the
People's Republic of China Army marched in Beijing against the striking
backdrop of Tiananmen Square, commemorating the sacrifice of at least 24
million Chinese in the conflict and their contribution to the war
against the Japanese occupiers. It is certainly a military display by a
great power, but the country's true strength lies not only in this, but
also in its leadership in technology and innovation. The proud parade,
composed of 12,000 men and women, represents only a small fraction of
the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the largest in the world, with
approximately 2.25 million total troops, including 1.6 million in the
army, 470,000 in the air force, and 200,000 in the navy.
Although conscription is required, the PLA recruits primarily
volunteers, and its force is composed of four main services (Ground
Force, Navy, Air Force, and Aerospace Force) and four branches
(Aerospace, Cyberspace, Information Support, and Joint Logistics Support).
80th Anniversary Parade of the National Liberation War, Beijing 2025
The extent to which this army represents the new China is clearly
evident when, after the parade of units, one watches the parade of
weapons (tanks, troop carriers, missiles, drones, and everything else
that is part of the military technical apparatus of a modern army). It
is then clear that the vast majority of the weapons presented to the
public are not, as in the past, copies or re-imaginings of Russian
weapons, but rather newly developed weapon systems, consisting of new
weapons developed by the Chinese and the result of research and testing
that have profoundly innovated, even the Chinese army's own armament, so
much so that China has become an exporter of weapons systems, both
airborne and missile-based. competitive compared to those produced in
the West, such as Russia.
Journalists assigned to cover the event don't seem to have grasped all
this, evidence of which is that they (at least the Italian ones)
preferred to focus on trivialities, such as reporting on the Chinese
army hunting pigeons by specially trained baboons (Corriere della Sera
reports). They would do well to remember that, as a recent report
commissioned by the US State Department, the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute (ASPI) highlighted, China currently holds leadership in 57 out
of 64 critical technologies, thanks to an innovation model based on
centralized planning, massive research investments, and a strong
population adaptability. These factors have led China to dominate
sectors such as artificial intelligence, batteries, and electric
automotive, as demonstrated by the success stories of companies like BYD
and CATL, to name just a few.
Investing in research and innovation
Australian research It concerns the position of various countries in
relation to 64 key technologies (Hurst, 2023).
As many newspapers have reported, China is now the most advanced country
in the world in 57 of these. These include, among other things, electric
batteries, hypersonic technologies, and communications, with 5G and 6G,
while the United States remains the leading country only in the
remaining seven technologies, including vaccines, quantum computers, and
space systems. Europe has no leading position in any of these fields.
China now appears to be on its way to becoming the leading superpower in
science and technology; in some of these fields, it appears to hold all
of the top ten positions in the field of research institutions. The
Chinese Academy of Sciences ranks first or second in most of the 64
technologies included in the analysis referred to. Obviously, the
Australian institute emphasizes that in any case, there is a large gap
between China and the United States on the one hand and all other
countries on the other. In this context, we know that the two countries,
taken together, represent every It accounts for approximately 50% of
global research and development spending annually. It will be recalled
that, faced with Trump's threats to dramatically raise tariffs on
products from China, the Chinese government responded by threatening to
block the export of rare earths. Yet China is not the only country to
possess them; in fact, rare earths are distributed across various
territories around the world. However, it is China that possesses the
technologies and know-how necessary to refine these materials, which
require an incredible degree of purity to be usable, and this is what
allows China to maintain a virtually unchallenged monopoly on the
distribution and sale of these minerals. Looking at the critical
materials mining sector, Chile leads the way with approximately 25% of
the total for copper, China with 60% for rare earths, Australia with 48%
for lithium, Indonesia with 38% for nickel, and finally, Congo with
approximately 70% for cobalt. In terms of processing these same metals,
China consistently leads the way in all cases: 34% for copper, 58% for
lithium, 56% for nickel, 70% for cobalt, and 90% for rare earths.
Neither innovation nor technological development stops with raw
materials: today, the world has an ever-increasing need for energy:
Beijing plans to reach 1.2 billion kilowatts of installed wind and solar
capacity by 2030. For solar panels, it aims to achieve 85% of the global
total, for cells and modules 85%, and for wafers 90%. For wind energy,
it aims to achieve 85% of blades and 90% of towers and platforms; for
battery components, 98% of anodes and 93% of cathodes. China would thus
be responsible for 80% of all additional production capacity announced
by 2030 for copper, 95% for cobalt, 60% for lithium, and nickel.
China's True Wealth
The reasons for the success of the Chinese model lie in certain
characteristics of its economy and its development, linked to its
ability for short- and long-term planning, positive competition among
companies, and the very high number of graduates in technical subjects.
The habit of planning cannot be seen simply as a legacy of Soviet-era
five-year plans, but rather as the fruit of a profound culture that
views the passage of time as one of the components of solving any
problem. This leads to a choice between immediate and long-term
solutions, favoring the latter because they constitute a structural
solution.
To avoid the sclerosis of the production system that characterized the
Soviet five-year development plans, China introduced so-called "positive
competition" among companies. The state promotes the emergence of new
investment sectors and finances startups, often characterized by an
innovative, scalable, and replicable business model.
At the start of their operations, the state distributes funding to a
group of companies, allowing them to compete with each other, thus
improving their standards and production performance, refining and
innovating management methods. Thus, the market and organizational and
production capabilities determine a selection process from which leading
companies emerge. At this point, state funding and support is focused on
those companies that have achieved the best results. (This is in keeping
with the "hundred flowers policy," which, as Mao said, was summarized by
the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom," which underpins the
establishment of businesses in every municipality and thus widespread
entrepreneurship in light and consumer industries.) This has allowed
China to develop, in addition to the heavy industry necessary for the
country's development, a widespread small-scale entrepreneurship that
reflects the country's historical production structure, made up of many
small artisan workshops, today revisited with a modern twist, ensuring
that the past and present are intertwined with tradition.
The most important government intervention consists of investing in
education, as evidenced by the fact that every year, China produces
approximately 4.7 million graduates in STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, surpassing the United States in
terms of both graduates and doctorates. In fact, in 2025, China produced
over 77,000 STEM PhDs: this qualified workforce has poured into
productive activities, both as managers and as startup workers.
Lights but also Shadows
While technological innovation reigns supreme, China today faces
significant challenges regarding the stability of its economy,
preventing the excessive financial liquidity generated from spilling
over into sectors like real estate, which could create gigantic
speculative bubbles. It must reduce its dependence on exports and
revitalize the domestic consumer market, prioritizing the issue of
welfare, which is almost entirely nonexistent, in order to find the
structural and organizational resources to manage its aging population
and declining birth rate. The country's inclusion in the BRICS, which
China has strongly supported, has certainly been a success. It has
created a space for the country to build, with the prudence that
characterizes its modus operandi, a commercial and economic space
alternative to the West. This has created the conditions, with
perseverance, for overcoming the dollar-based international monetary
system. China fully understands that monetary and financial power is one
of the essential strengths of its international competitors and that it
is therefore necessary to build a multipolar world that values national
currencies and enables more equitable trade relations. In its foresight,
the political leadership of the People's Republic of China, while
continuing to consider Europe its preferred market because it is
considered the richest in the world, as demonstrated by its support for
the development of the Arctic route, must acknowledge the irreversible
decline of this market and of Europe's wealth.
https://www.ucadi.org/2025/11/30/pechino-alla-conquista-dellegemonia/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
People's Republic of China Army marched in Beijing against the striking
backdrop of Tiananmen Square, commemorating the sacrifice of at least 24
million Chinese in the conflict and their contribution to the war
against the Japanese occupiers. It is certainly a military display by a
great power, but the country's true strength lies not only in this, but
also in its leadership in technology and innovation. The proud parade,
composed of 12,000 men and women, represents only a small fraction of
the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the largest in the world, with
approximately 2.25 million total troops, including 1.6 million in the
army, 470,000 in the air force, and 200,000 in the navy.
Although conscription is required, the PLA recruits primarily
volunteers, and its force is composed of four main services (Ground
Force, Navy, Air Force, and Aerospace Force) and four branches
(Aerospace, Cyberspace, Information Support, and Joint Logistics Support).
80th Anniversary Parade of the National Liberation War, Beijing 2025
The extent to which this army represents the new China is clearly
evident when, after the parade of units, one watches the parade of
weapons (tanks, troop carriers, missiles, drones, and everything else
that is part of the military technical apparatus of a modern army). It
is then clear that the vast majority of the weapons presented to the
public are not, as in the past, copies or re-imaginings of Russian
weapons, but rather newly developed weapon systems, consisting of new
weapons developed by the Chinese and the result of research and testing
that have profoundly innovated, even the Chinese army's own armament, so
much so that China has become an exporter of weapons systems, both
airborne and missile-based. competitive compared to those produced in
the West, such as Russia.
Journalists assigned to cover the event don't seem to have grasped all
this, evidence of which is that they (at least the Italian ones)
preferred to focus on trivialities, such as reporting on the Chinese
army hunting pigeons by specially trained baboons (Corriere della Sera
reports). They would do well to remember that, as a recent report
commissioned by the US State Department, the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute (ASPI) highlighted, China currently holds leadership in 57 out
of 64 critical technologies, thanks to an innovation model based on
centralized planning, massive research investments, and a strong
population adaptability. These factors have led China to dominate
sectors such as artificial intelligence, batteries, and electric
automotive, as demonstrated by the success stories of companies like BYD
and CATL, to name just a few.
Investing in research and innovation
Australian research It concerns the position of various countries in
relation to 64 key technologies (Hurst, 2023).
As many newspapers have reported, China is now the most advanced country
in the world in 57 of these. These include, among other things, electric
batteries, hypersonic technologies, and communications, with 5G and 6G,
while the United States remains the leading country only in the
remaining seven technologies, including vaccines, quantum computers, and
space systems. Europe has no leading position in any of these fields.
China now appears to be on its way to becoming the leading superpower in
science and technology; in some of these fields, it appears to hold all
of the top ten positions in the field of research institutions. The
Chinese Academy of Sciences ranks first or second in most of the 64
technologies included in the analysis referred to. Obviously, the
Australian institute emphasizes that in any case, there is a large gap
between China and the United States on the one hand and all other
countries on the other. In this context, we know that the two countries,
taken together, represent every It accounts for approximately 50% of
global research and development spending annually. It will be recalled
that, faced with Trump's threats to dramatically raise tariffs on
products from China, the Chinese government responded by threatening to
block the export of rare earths. Yet China is not the only country to
possess them; in fact, rare earths are distributed across various
territories around the world. However, it is China that possesses the
technologies and know-how necessary to refine these materials, which
require an incredible degree of purity to be usable, and this is what
allows China to maintain a virtually unchallenged monopoly on the
distribution and sale of these minerals. Looking at the critical
materials mining sector, Chile leads the way with approximately 25% of
the total for copper, China with 60% for rare earths, Australia with 48%
for lithium, Indonesia with 38% for nickel, and finally, Congo with
approximately 70% for cobalt. In terms of processing these same metals,
China consistently leads the way in all cases: 34% for copper, 58% for
lithium, 56% for nickel, 70% for cobalt, and 90% for rare earths.
Neither innovation nor technological development stops with raw
materials: today, the world has an ever-increasing need for energy:
Beijing plans to reach 1.2 billion kilowatts of installed wind and solar
capacity by 2030. For solar panels, it aims to achieve 85% of the global
total, for cells and modules 85%, and for wafers 90%. For wind energy,
it aims to achieve 85% of blades and 90% of towers and platforms; for
battery components, 98% of anodes and 93% of cathodes. China would thus
be responsible for 80% of all additional production capacity announced
by 2030 for copper, 95% for cobalt, 60% for lithium, and nickel.
China's True Wealth
The reasons for the success of the Chinese model lie in certain
characteristics of its economy and its development, linked to its
ability for short- and long-term planning, positive competition among
companies, and the very high number of graduates in technical subjects.
The habit of planning cannot be seen simply as a legacy of Soviet-era
five-year plans, but rather as the fruit of a profound culture that
views the passage of time as one of the components of solving any
problem. This leads to a choice between immediate and long-term
solutions, favoring the latter because they constitute a structural
solution.
To avoid the sclerosis of the production system that characterized the
Soviet five-year development plans, China introduced so-called "positive
competition" among companies. The state promotes the emergence of new
investment sectors and finances startups, often characterized by an
innovative, scalable, and replicable business model.
At the start of their operations, the state distributes funding to a
group of companies, allowing them to compete with each other, thus
improving their standards and production performance, refining and
innovating management methods. Thus, the market and organizational and
production capabilities determine a selection process from which leading
companies emerge. At this point, state funding and support is focused on
those companies that have achieved the best results. (This is in keeping
with the "hundred flowers policy," which, as Mao said, was summarized by
the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom," which underpins the
establishment of businesses in every municipality and thus widespread
entrepreneurship in light and consumer industries.) This has allowed
China to develop, in addition to the heavy industry necessary for the
country's development, a widespread small-scale entrepreneurship that
reflects the country's historical production structure, made up of many
small artisan workshops, today revisited with a modern twist, ensuring
that the past and present are intertwined with tradition.
The most important government intervention consists of investing in
education, as evidenced by the fact that every year, China produces
approximately 4.7 million graduates in STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, surpassing the United States in
terms of both graduates and doctorates. In fact, in 2025, China produced
over 77,000 STEM PhDs: this qualified workforce has poured into
productive activities, both as managers and as startup workers.
Lights but also Shadows
While technological innovation reigns supreme, China today faces
significant challenges regarding the stability of its economy,
preventing the excessive financial liquidity generated from spilling
over into sectors like real estate, which could create gigantic
speculative bubbles. It must reduce its dependence on exports and
revitalize the domestic consumer market, prioritizing the issue of
welfare, which is almost entirely nonexistent, in order to find the
structural and organizational resources to manage its aging population
and declining birth rate. The country's inclusion in the BRICS, which
China has strongly supported, has certainly been a success. It has
created a space for the country to build, with the prudence that
characterizes its modus operandi, a commercial and economic space
alternative to the West. This has created the conditions, with
perseverance, for overcoming the dollar-based international monetary
system. China fully understands that monetary and financial power is one
of the essential strengths of its international competitors and that it
is therefore necessary to build a multipolar world that values national
currencies and enables more equitable trade relations. In its foresight,
the political leadership of the People's Republic of China, while
continuing to consider Europe its preferred market because it is
considered the richest in the world, as demonstrated by its support for
the development of the Arctic route, must acknowledge the irreversible
decline of this market and of Europe's wealth.
https://www.ucadi.org/2025/11/30/pechino-alla-conquista-dellegemonia/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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