• CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Classic fluff piece to make China look more innovative than they actually are. I wouldn‘t be surprised if we never heard of this tech or if they recycle the same article next year. Tech ‚journalism‘ about China is a mine field of false claims and exaggerations.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      6 months ago

      Na+ batteries are really cool tech, and with a few more iterations of R&D they can potentially replace Li+ batteries, removing the need for rare earth elements that are toxic to people and the environment, dangerous to extract, and more often than not extracted by child slave labor (such as in Xinjiang and Congo).

      It doesn’t matter how you feel about China, although framing Na+ as “China’s battery” is problematic for other reasons.

      • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Well it stinks like Chinese propaganda. That much was blatantly obvious to me. It‘s just not always obvious what part they‘re lying about. So it was the part about it being Chinese in the first place. Not very creative I must say.

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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          6 months ago

          The particular innovation discussed in the article was developed by Chinese engineers. But that doesn’t make Na+ batteries “Chinese batteries.”

          If all tech was owned by the country where it was developed, there would be a lot more “american this,” “american that.” Planes, computers, automobiles, nukes, etc.

          Too much of it already is controlled by US patents, though. There needs to be more freedom to invent, develop, and iterate…

    • teyrnon@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      This is recycled I read about about this last year in the same kind of context on Reddit.

      Separately though I have read there are hundreds of chemical combinations that produce electricity and only a handful have been researched for batteries.