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Notes -
I have to confess that I do not have much trust in Chinese media accurately reporting on this matter, nor do I trust Reuters - what/how would they actually know? What other evidence is there, even if only circumstantial, that would suggest there has been real progress toward developing domestic EUV capability in China?
R&D in different sectors can be extremely different, but at least in the sectors I’m familiar with, I’m not very impressed by the current academic and research culture in China. It is certainly better than in 2015, as more and more people trained in the US, Germany, or elsewhere have returned to China, and creating some shift within academia and shifting from publishing papers in shitty predatory journals to producing higher quality research and technological development at least in Peking, Tsinghua etc that can rival the “west”. But considering how the broader academic culture continues to treat people like candles, burning them up and then tossing them in the trash, I don’t think this creates a good culture or working environment for many of the most ambitious and talented researchers. Maybe I’m wrong and corrupted by the west and turned into a soft-hearted baizuo already, and with enough talent China can afford to waste precious human capital like this (e.g. this or this (Chinese) or this (Chinese)), but I’m not terribly convinced.
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