
China speeds ahead of U.S. as quantum race escalates, worrying scientists - eplanit
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article179971861.html
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nyolfen
> They also can process algorithms that break all widely used encryption.

there’s that science reporting we know and love

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bitmage
"It doesn’t necessarily mean that their scientists are better, it’s just that
when they say, ‘We need a billion dollars to do this,’ bam, the money comes.”
More than that, when their scientists approach the government they aren't
treated with scorn, told they are 'fake news', and ignored.

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nopinsight
China's advances in AI are impressive as well. A ranking based on publications
at top conferences from 2012 to present (2017) has both Beijing and Tsinghua
University in the world's top 5.

[http://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp](http://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp)

(The starting year in the link needs to be changed to 2012.)

Many of the top researchers in US academia are mainland Chinese. I wonder if
they will be enticed back home when the Chinese government has managed to
reduce the pollution in their major cities down to healthy levels. It appears
that the salary for top people there, especially those with experience at
major Western institutions, is comparable to those in the US in nominal terms,
and the research funding is easier to get.

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Florin_Andrei
My bet is that there is someone, or some group, at a very, very high level in
the Chinese government, who understand that these (quantum science, AI) are
superhot science and technology areas, and agree that investments _right now_
would pay off extremely well in the future.

Central planning has downsides - but apparently some advantages too.

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nopinsight
Many of their top leaders have engineering background. Xi Jinping himself
studied chemical engineering. Those who studied liberal arts often have very
strong academic records or a PhD. Li Keqiang, the premier, is an economics
PhD.

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0xfaded
I have a minor github repo for doing embedded image processing. At least half
the people who reach out to me about of are from China, which surprised me.

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B1FF_PSUVM
Sounds like a remake of the 1980s blockbuster "Give us money, the Japanese 5th
gen computers are coming!"

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FiveSquared
The US isn’t some special nation that is guaranteed to succeed forever. The
Romans believed it, the Classical Greeks also did, the Victorian British, etc.
Every nation falls. The US is no different.

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lostmsu
The entire article does not mention qubit once.

