Do we need another China watch thread?

[BeBMan]

So, during the last weeks, I read that:


1. China has revealed new fighter jets. No idea if they're good or bad or in what stage of development they are, but they look cool. Can we allow a gap on futuristic-looking aircraft?


2. The Covid lab theory is back. The CIA etc. say on the one hand nothing's conclusive, but then they seem to like the idea more now. Or, if you're a cynic, you may think it has to do with Trump taking office. Or it turns out to be true. Or just not


3. And now they surprise markets with AI stuff. No idea if the AI tool is good or bad, but today it made lotsa headlines. Maybe because it's not biological


I'm too lazy to dig links now, but it's all been widely rep'ed


/cents

[Dinner]

1. The jets are interesting but experts say they are under developed and technically behind. That is why planes like the J-26 are so large and require three engines instead of two. On the upside for the Communist Chinese it should have the range to reach the second island chain and has large internal missile racks for stand off weapons. The smaller drone they are developing looks far more usual as it will be much cheaper and easier to manufacturer. I wonder how secure their data links will be?

2. The report about Covid most likely coming from the Wuhan lab due to gain of function research was actually written in 2021 under the Biden administration, but the Biden admin buried it and then spent all their energy trying to claim what their own experts said was most likely was some how a *conspiracy theory".

[N35t0r]

Never change Oerdin

[MOBIUS]

Careful, my China thread mysteriously got deleted.

Maybe it was the Chinese after all and not some pr*ck on poly who hates me 😅

[BeBMan]

[BeBMan]

The new Chinese AI thing doesn't like to talk about certain critical issues related to CCP rule, like Tiananmen Square. Unless you use leetspeak

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/we-tried-out-deepseek-it-works-well-until-we-asked-it-about-tiananmen-square-and-taiwan