China Sci Tech Update

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By denn - Tsinghua, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

The Tsinghua University campus in Beijing, China. - Source: Wikimedia

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A recent article:

(Wagner 2026) China surpasses US in research spending – the consequences extend far beyond scientific ranking and clout https://theconversation.com/china-surpasses-us-in-research-spending-the-consequences-extend-far-beyond-scientific-ranking-and-clout-280543 by Caroline Wagner - The Conversation - April 24, 2026 - Archive https://archive.ph/5NSCR

Caroline Wagner is Professor of Public Affairs, at the Ohio State University.

From the article (emphasis added):

• 2019: China “surpassed the U.S. in its share of the top 1% most-highly cited papers – what some call the Nobel class of research”.
  
  
• 2022: China has taken the “first place globally in most-cited papers overall”.
  
  
• 2024: China has overtaken “the United States in total scientific publications – the first time any nation has displaced American dominance since the U.S. itself surpassed the United Kingdom in 1948. Researchers found that China overtook the United States in scientific output even earlier. That same year, China pulled ahead in the Nature Index, which tracks publications in the world’s most selective scientific journals, posting a 17% advantage over the U.S. in outlets long considered the gold standard of scientific excellence”.
  
  In 2024, Chinese entities also filed roughly 1.8 million patent applications, compared to the U.S.’s 603,191 applications.
  
  
• 2026: “China’s rapid rise in science has hit a milestone. The country’s investment in research and development has reached parity with – and by purchasing power measures has surpassed – that of the United States, according to a March 2026 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Both nations have crossed the US$1 trillion threshold on research spending.”
  

And she continues:

China’s ascent is, in one sense, good news. More knowledge, generated by more researchers across more institutions, expands the global pool of discovery from which everyone can draw. The world benefits when science thrives.

The problem is not that China is investing, but that the U.S. is not.

Definitely an article to read. In addition the OECD report mentioned:

(OECD 2026) OECD overall R&D growth stable; government R&D budgets decline and reorient towards defence https://www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/statistical-releases/2026/03/oecd-overall-rd-growth-stable-government-rd-budgets-decline-and-reorient-towards-defence.html 31 March 2026 - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Additional Information on Research Competition

(Economist 2024)China has become a scientific superpower: From plant biology to superconductor physics the country is at the cutting edge https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/12/china-has-become-a-scientific-superpower Jun 12, 2024 - Archive https://archive.ph/D3S4u

(ASPI 2024) ASPI’s two-decade Critical Technology Tracker: The rewards of long-term research investment https://www.aspi.org.au/report/aspis-two-decade-critical-technology-tracker/ Australian Strategic Policy Institute - 28 August 2024 - PDF 72 pages.

If you are on X/Twitter try also the following search for my posts in the past few years:

(from:@metacode) #ChinaSciTech

Nuclear Energy and Thorium

Thorium and nuclear energy goes back to the 1940s in the Barkeley Lab, and although the US operated a ship using it, for many reasons it did not lead to a solution. However China’s determination made the US idea work.

Full transcript of a conversation between Prof. Glenn Diesen and Henry Tillman, the CEO of Aiyana Advisory and Research:

(Pangambam 2025) Transcript of Henry Tillman: China’s Thorium Revolution – 60.000 Years of Cheap Energy https://singjupost.com/transcript-of-henry-tillman-chinas-thorium-revolution-60-000-years-of-cheap-energy/ by S. Pangambam - April 23, 2025 - Archive https://archive.ph/6gHAO

But the story is thorium goes back to the 1830s in Norway as a rare earth, basically. And it was by 1941 in the US at Berkeley, where I went to school later on, of course, both plutonium and thorium were in the mix for the Manhattan Project. But thorium is not explosive on its own. So the choice was made for plutonium.

By 1959, Edmund Teller, as part of the Eisenhower for Safe Nuclear, had developed thorium as a nuclear reactor and presented it to the first US oil company in 1959, saying we have a problem with CO2 and here’s the solution for it because it’s clean burn and it’s non-explosive.

From 1962 to 1972 the US ran the first cargo ship on thorium for 10 straight years, no incidents. And then it also was run at Oak Ridge onshore from 1965 to 1969 for about 13,000 hours. It was sporadic, but in 1972 led by US Admiral Rickover, who was quite a character with Nixon, the ultimate plan was not to use thorium going forward, but they’d use plutonium in the nuclear program.

So from 1972 to 2011, the US backed by the UK had locked down the formula for the use of thorium. Then Fukushima happened. By the time Fukushima happened, the US had decided, we have to go back in time. At some point around 2011, the US opened up that technology to many universities and many governments. It was also led by the research I’ve done by two US senators, one from Utah and one from Nevada, Harry Reid, to say, let’s open this up. If you use this, you have to give the IP back. So they gave this to Jiang Jimen’s son, literally from China in 2011, but it also went to Russia and a number of other countries.

(Lague 2013) SPECIAL REPORT-The U.S. government lab behind China’s nuclear power push by David Lague and Charlie Zhu - Dec 20, 2013 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20181123125037/https://in.reuters.com/article/breakout-thorium-idINL4N0FE21U20131220

Jiang Mianheng, son of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, visited Oak Ridge in 2010 and brokered a cooperation agreement with the lab. The deal gave the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has a staff of 50,000, the plans for a thorium reactor. In January 2011, Jiang signed a protocol with the Department of Energy outlining the terms of joint energy research with the academy.

An electrical engineer trained at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Jiang told a conference on thorium in Shanghai last year China’s thorium project “is 100 percent financed by the central government.”

The protocol stipulates that intellectual property arising from the joint research will be shared with the global scientific community. It excludes sharing commercially confidential information and any other material that the parties agree to withhold. The pact also specifically rules out any military or weapons-related research. “All activities conducted under this protocol shall be exclusively for peaceful purposes,” it says.

Jess Gehin, a nuclear-reactor physicist at Oak Ridge, says the pact allows the two sides to share information about their research.

As project chief scientist Xu Hongjie put it:

Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance.

Comment: If China manages to scale it, 10-15 years from now Trump-like shenanigans will not matter at all. All the Chinese have to do is keep focused and that is what they do.

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Started: Thu, Apr 30, 2026

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Book: Jewish History, Jewish Religion

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Earlier this year I came across Ron Unz’s article “Oddities of the Jewish Religion” (Unz 2018).

Part of the article discusses the work of Israel Shahak, an award-winning Chemistry professor at Hebrew University and human-rights activist.

One of Shahak’s books is Jewish History, Jewish Religion (Shahak 1994).

Motivated by the article I have started reading the book and recommend it. The book is short but dense. Here is the very first paragraph that sets the stage:

This book, although written in English and addressed to people living outside the State of Israel, is, in a way, a continuation of my political activities as an Israeli Jew. Those activities began in 1965-6 with a protest which caused a considerable scandal at the time: I had personally witnessed an ultra-religious Jew refuse to allow his phone to be used on the Sabbath in order to call an ambulance for a non-Jew who happened to have collapsed in his Jerusalem neighbourhood. Instead of simply publishing the incident in the press, I asked for a meeting which is composed of rabbis nominated by the State of Israel. I asked them whether such behavior was consistent with their interpretation of the Jewish religion. They answered that the Jew in question had behaved correctly, indeed piously, and backed their statement by referring me to a passage in an authoritative compendium of Talmudic laws, written in this century. I reported the incident to the main Hebrew daily, Ha’aretz, whose publication of the story caused a media scandal.

Important to mention, the book has two prefaces, one by Gore Vidal, and the other Edward Said.

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Sources

(Shahak 1994) Jewish History, Jewish Religion, the Weight of 3000 Years by Israel Shahak, 1994. Available online: https://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/shahak.html

(Unz 2018) American Pravda: Oddities of the Jewish Religion: The Surprising Elements of Talmudic Judaism https://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-oddities-of-the-jewish-religion/ by Ron Unz - July 16, 2018 - Unz Review - Archive https://archive.is/hBJrz

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Started: Fri, Apr 24, 2026

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Iran War Update: Fertilizers

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No Farms, No Food! Farmer protest in Ireland, April 2026. Source: Iowa Public Radio.

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Most discussions seem to be about oil but there is another commodity affected by the Hormuz closing.

(Johnson 2026) Choke Point: The Global Economic Consequences of the Persian Gulf Shutdown - How the disruption of oil, liquefied natural gas, and urea exports will cascade through the world economy https://www.unz.com/article/choke-point-the-global-economic-consequences-of-the-persian-gulf-shutdown/ by Larry C. Johnson, former analyst for the CIA and the US State Dept - March 10, 2026 - Unz Review - Archive https://archive.is/8sQx6

Of the three commodity shocks, the disruption of urea exports from the Persian Gulf may be the least immediately visible — but could prove the most enduring in its consequences. Urea is the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser. It is synthesised from natural gas via the Haber-Bosch process, and the Gulf states — particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Oman — are among the world’s largest producers and exporters, collectively accounting for a significant share of global urea trade.

The dependency of modern agriculture on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser is difficult to overstate. It is estimated that roughly half of the nitrogen in the human body today passed through the Haber-Bosch process at some point — meaning that artificial fertiliser now sustains approximately half of the world’s population. A collapse in urea supply would threaten crop yields on a global scale.

Crop yield decline. Without adequate nitrogen fertiliser, yields of staple crops — wheat, rice, maize, soy — would fall dramatically within one to two growing seasons. The effect would not be uniform: wealthy agricultural nations with domestic fertiliser capacity or large stockpiles (the United States, Canada, parts of Europe) would be more insulated. The developing world, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, would face acute shortages.

Food price inflation. Global food prices, already elevated by conflict-related supply disruptions in recent years, would surge further. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s food price index would likely break historical records. Bread, rice, and staple grain prices would become unaffordable for hundreds of millions of people.

Geopolitical instability. Historical evidence linking sharp food price spikes to political instability is robust. The Arab Spring of 2011 coincided with a period of record food prices. A global urea shortage and its downstream consequences for food security would heighten the risk of civil unrest, state fragility, and humanitarian crisis across numerous countries.

Urea Exposure: Country Risk Summary by Larry C. Johnson.

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(Prokopenko 2026) Beyond Oil: Hormuz Closure Puts Russia in the Lead in the Fertilizer Market - The Kremlin expects to not only profit from rising fertilizer prices but also exact revenge for the collapse of the 2023 grain deal https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2026/03/russia-new-fertilizer-export by Alexandra Prokopenko, Fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center - Carnegie Endowment For International Peace - Mar 24, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/fbR3b

Prokopenko with a threat-assessment on the potential of Russia to take advantage of the current situation. Sometimes stretches things a bit, for example:

Importers in Nigeria and Ghana are already pre-purchasing Russian fertilizers for the third quarter of 2026. This is a rational market response to the disappearance of competing supply, and once established, these connections will solidify into a dependency that could outlast any ceasefire.

What does “solidify into a dependency” mean actually? When the crisis ends the African coutries are perfectly able to reassess their options and choose another supplier, n’est-ce pas?

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(Welsh 2026) Iran, Fertilizer, and Food Security: Risks, Impacts, and Policy Responses https://www.csis.org/analysis/iran-fertilizer-and-food-security-risks-impacts-and-policy-responses by Caitlin Welsh - CSIS - April 1, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/8sz55

Lengthy informative article, Welsh asks and then answers relevant queswtions about a possible global food crisis because of the Hormuz closing:

Beyond high energy prices, the war with Iran is also directly increasing the price of fertilizer through the restriction of exports of fertilizers and inputs to fertilizer production. Prior to this war, approximately 20–30 percent of global fertilizer exports transited the Strait of Hormuz, including approximately 23 percent of ammonia and 34 percent of urea, the most commonly used nitrogen-based fertilizers, along with 20 percent of phosphates traded globally. The strait also transits approximately 20 percent of global LNG exports, and approximately 45 percent of global exports of sulfur, a byproduct of oil production that is used to produce phosphate-based fertilizers.

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(Lu 2026) The Iran War’s Agriculture Shock Isn’t Over Yet Even with a cease-fire deal in place, vital energy and fertilizer flows remain trapped https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/04/10/iran-war-ceasefire-energy-fertilizer-agriculture-food-prices/ By Christina Lu, staff writer at Foreign Policy - Apr 10, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/3TMQF

The crisis could go global really soon:

From Ireland to India, the war’s economic shock is already rippling across farm communities worldwide. Farmers took to the streets in Ireland this week to protest fuel prices, while surging fertilizer costs have reportedly roiled farmers across the United Kingdom. Egypt has capped the price of unsubsidized bread loaves in order to shield consumers from higher prices, and in Vietnam—the world’s second-biggest rice exporter—higher costs and shipping delays have disrupted rice farming.

Comment: And if that doesn’t do it, there is always oil and LNG.

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Started: Fri, Apr 17, 2026

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Europe Update 2 - Freedom and NGOs

Sanctioned journalist Hüseyin Doğru - Source: mronline.org

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(UN 2026) Germany: UN expert warns space for freedom of expression is shrinking amidst growing threats https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/germany-un-expert-warns-space-freedom-expression-shrinking-amidst-growing Report by Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression - UN - Feb 6, 2026 - Archive <>

“Many individuals to whom I spoke - including students from the Jewish community, pro-Palestinian solidarity activists, women leaders in local politics, journalists, academics and artists – told me that hateful attacks, often amplified by social media, are making them afraid to speak online or offline,” the expert said.

“While the government has taken these threats seriously, it has relied increasingly on criminalisation and security-oriented approaches to address them. Many of these measures – ranging from heightened protection of officials from public criticism to blanket bans on activists’ slogans and surveillance of organisations on vague grounds of ‘extremism’ – are inconsistent with international human rights standards,” she said.

Khan said the approach risks narrowing the space for diverse, meaningful democratic debate, accelerating social polarisation, and increasing the possibility of the public losing trust in those very democratic institutions that the government is seeking to protect.

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(Shaller 2026) Europe Is Sanctioning Critics of Israel and Militarism https://jacobin.com/2026/03/eu-us-sanctions-gaza-russia By Caspar Shaller - Jacobin - Mar 20, 2026 - Archive https://archive.is/QIJqR

One case that deserves special attention is that of German journalist Hüseyin Doğru. Since the EU placed him on a sanctions list in May 2025, he has had no access to his accounts and is not allowed to travel. Doğru lives in Berlin and is much more affected by the sanctions than others. “You can’t even buy me a coffee,” says Doğru during an interview in Berlin. “In theory, I’m not even allowed to help myself to anything in the fridge after my wife went shopping.” The German Bundesbank, which is in charge of enforcing sanctions, granted him an exemption to withdraw a minimum subsistence allowance of €506 a month from his bank account. And even this tiny sum was temporarily blocked by his bank. “I can’t feed my newborn babies,” says Doğru. “On an existential level, you’re reduced to zero.”

The allegedly “violent” demonstration refers to the occupation of Humboldt University in Berlin by pro-Palestinian activists in 2024. Because Doğru reported on the occupation on his website, he is said to have created a platform for the “rioters” to spread the ideology and symbols of terrorist groups such as Hamas. Does reporting on protests against the German government or its allies constitute an exercise of a fundamental right in a democracy or political subversion on behalf of a hostile power? For the EU, it’s the latter.

Doğru’s case raises serious questions about freedom of expression in Europe. Who decides what constitutes acceptable journalism and what constitutes propaganda that must be suppressed? What exactly is disinformation — is it simply a different interpretation of facts? Can opinions be sanctioned as disinformation? The EU is making an example of Doğru. It’s a warning: if journalists report in a way we don’t like, we can destroy your lives. The chilling effect is already having an impact: Doğru has received little (public) solidarity from left-wing politicians, journalists, or the media. Some left-wing publications refused to report on the case at all; Doğru is too tainted by the accusations of being pro-Putin. The few attempts to help Doğru have been blocked. German newspaper Junge Welt wanted to give Doğru a job but was informed by the Bundesbank that that would constitute prohibited economic aid. To date, despite repeated inquiries by his lawyer, Doğru has not gotten a concrete answer as to whether he is allowed to work.

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(Fazi 2026) ‘In order to defend democracy, the EU effectively destroys it’ — An Interview with Thomas Fazi https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/interview/european-democracy-shield-thomas-fazi/ by Tamás Maráczi — Hungarian Conservative - Mar 23, 2026 - Archive https://archive.md/OwU5f

At the 2016 US presidential election, there were allegations that they managed to penetrate into the servers of the Democratic National Committee.

There were allegations, which were subsequently completely disproven. Russiagate was a hoax. It’s now been admitted even by the FBI and the American intelligence services. And what we are seeing today in Europe is a European version of Russiagate. In that case, the objective was to stop Trump from getting into the White House. And today, the kind of Euro Russiagate is aimed at all populist or anti-establishment parties that threaten the status quo and the establishment. Let’s not forget that just over a year ago in Romania, an entire election was annulled on grounds of alleged Russian interference, of Russia allegedly running some kind of disinformation scheme on TikTok that supposedly had convinced voters to vote for the independent populist candidate who ended up winning that first round of the elections. Well, they provided no evidence whatsoever for that alleged disinformation scheme. And even TikTok claimed that there was no evidence of this manipulation.

So you claim that the EU itself interfered in the election process in Romania. What’s the proof?

Well, I’ve read hundreds of pages of reports about this, and I tracked all the EU funding, all the EU money that goes to NGOs, media, and universities across Europe to essentially promote pro-EU narratives and the Brussels agenda. What the EU is running here is a scheme very similar to what USAID has done for many years around the world, essentially sending money to NGOs and alleged independent media outlets in third countries to promote America’s economic and geopolitical interests. Now the European Union does exactly the same thing. It uses these funds to manipulate civil society in countries to promote its own interests and agenda. And the EU runs these schemes in member states, especially in countries that are ruled by Eurosceptic governments. In Hungary and Poland, the EU has channelled huge amounts of funds.

How many NGOs, think tanks, or media outlets receive this financing from the European Commission annually?

We know that there are thousands of ‘NGO’s across Europe who receive money from the European Commission. It’s impossible to track the exact number, also because the definition of what exactly is an NGO isn’t clear, even in the EU’s own databases. But through the CERF programme, the EU has supported, since 2021, more than 3000 projects and thousands of NGOs. So it’s a very vast ecosystem. What has happened over the past decade is that, essentially, the political establishment has cultivated a fake civil society. How can you claim to be an NGO when most of your money comes from the political establishment, the political institutions, and in many cases, the European Union itself? You can’t claim to really be conveying the aspirations of civil society to the political institutions. What you’re doing, inevitably, is the opposite. You become a tool for the political establishment to convey their ideas and their ideology to public opinion. So it’s a literal inversion of what NGOs and civil society should do. The problem is that most of the NGOs that are operating today are not independent, but are simply extensions of the political establishment.

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Started: Tue, Apr 7, 2026

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