I have not belittled South Korea or Israel. I have only spoken the truth. Taiwan has over 20,000 more U.S. patents granted by the USPTO than South Korea. However, you never hear me claim that Taiwan is on a par with (or more advanced) than mainland China in most scientific fields. It is simply not true.
Taiwan is strong in semiconductors, consumer electronics, machine tools, and the emerging field of biotechnology. For the really important technologies (see list below), Taiwan cannot be compared to mainland China at all.
U.S. is a technological superpower. China can lay claim to being a growing peer to the U.S. in technological prowess. I don't think any other country qualifies. Sorry if I dented some people's pride.
In a contest for technological supremacy, these are some of the key benchmarks:
1. Send taikonaut into space and conduct spacewalk. (Ultimate test of aerospace technology.)
2. Build indigenous Aegis-class destroyer with advanced phased array radars.
3. Build fifth-generation stealth fighters.
4. Build world's-fastest bullet trains that travel an average of 380 kph.
5. Build world's-fastest supercomputer.
6. Launch a record 15 rocket/satellite launches in 2010 without a single failure.
7. Build nuclear submarines.
8. Building your own cryogenic rocket engine (see below).
I did not bring up the silly claim that South Korean advanced technologies are superior to China's. Based on the eight widely-acknowledged criteria above, South Korea scores a 0 out of 8. I'm sorry, but advanced South Korean technologies are a myth.
With regard to #2, South Korea has its phased array radar system installed by Lockheed Martin. With regard to #4, South Korea licensed French TGV technology. With regard to #6, South Korea paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the transfer of Russian rocketry technology and expertise (see articles below).
The truth hurts, but it is a foolish idea to bring any country, except for the United States, into a technological superpower comparison with China. They are not called the unofficial G-2 for nothing.
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http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6712/is_49_218/ai_n29014867/
"Jun 9, 2003 ...
South Korea selected Lockheed Martin in July 2002 to supply its Aegis system for the KDX-III destroyers over France's Thales, ..."
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/09/12/schwarzenegger_tries_out_chinas_high_speed_rail/
"Sep 12, 2010 ... "China now owns the most advanced high-speed rail technology and winning contracts in the ...
South Korea's KTX high speed rail, which is based on France's TGV technology, shares the same ... But its bullet trains, despite their impeccable record for safety and efficiency, run on dedicated tracks. ..."
[Unlike China, South Korea never made significant innovations and filed 940 patents to increase the speed of its bullet trains by 200 additional kph.]
http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_asia/2010-06-11/854343916031.html
"Jun 11, 2010 ...
The two stage rocket was built with the help of Russia at a cost of around 450 million US dollars. South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and send a probe to monitor the moon by 2025.
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To place the development of cryogenic rocket engines in its proper historical context, I thought you might want to know that NASA developed the world's first cryo engine in 1961 and China flight-tested her first cryo engine in 1984 (i.e. 27 years ago).
Cryogenic rocket engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The
first operational cryogenic rocket engine was the 1961 NASA design the RL-10 LOX LH2 rocket engine, which was used in the Saturn 1 rocket employed in the early stages of the Apollo moon landing program."
YF-73 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"
The YF-73 is China's first successful, cryogenic, gimballed engine, using liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) oxidizer. It was developed in the early 1980s and
first flight was in 1984."