By Stephen Leeb, Ph.D., and Megan Davis
There were two visits made to China in the last two weeks by two different country leaders – the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. On the surface, the welcoming committees seemed very similar. Both presidents had a handshake in Tiananmen Square with the flags of the two countries behind the leaders. Both were greeted by marching bands and crowds of cheering children waving flags. But beyond the photo ops, the two visits revealed just how different China’s relationship with the two countries truly is.
It was Trump’s second visit to the country, and Putin’s 25th. Xi and Putin reached more than 20 cooperation agreements, in areas from trade to technology, and signed a joint declaration between Russia and China, whereas Trump and Xi did not sign a single agreement. It was only after Trump’s return to America that he announced that China and the U.S. had reached several accords related to agricultural trade, but the details of those deals are still unclear, as is the ability of farming states in America to get the fertilizer they need given the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.
But it was more the footage of the visits that made most apparent the stark differences between the relationships between the leaders. Videos of Xi and Putin making dumplings together and Russian pancakes and taking vodka shots showed a friendship that seems to be rooted not only in respect for each other but also in appreciation for the cultures of their countries. In fact, in a joint declaration released by the two leaders, one of the most affecting statements, as translated and recounted by an attending reporter, was, “The spiritual and moral system of any civilization cannot be considered exceptional or superior to others. All countries should advocate a view of civilizations based on equality, mutual exchange of experience, and dialogue, and should strengthen mutual respect, understanding, trust, and exchanges between different nationalities and civilizations, promote mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of all countries, and protect the diversity of cultures and civilizations.”
The positive thing about having a strong culture is that people are willing to come together as one to do what is best for the entire country. One doesn’t have to agree with the forms of democracy that are employed by the Chinese and Russian states in order to have respect for what their respective leaders have accomplished. There are many who would, at this moment, proclaim, “Wait! These two countries are not democracies!” But, according to Robert Post, former Dean of Law at Yale, in his paper “Democracy and Equality,” “Democratic forms of government are those in which the laws are made by the same people to whom they apply (and for that reason they are autonomous norms), while in autocratic forms of government the law-makers are different from those to whom the laws are addressed (and are therefore heteronomous norms.)” And, honestly, of the three countries, the United States seems to be the country least likely to satisfy that requirement.
Both Russia and China began this century with a GDP per capita of approximately $1,000 (a little higher in Russia). In the 2000s, both countries remained committed to their education systems, viewing human resources and talent in addition to scientific innovation as critical drivers for national development, global competitiveness, and geopolitical strength. After a massive health care reform in the late 00s, China has ensured that over 95% of its citizens have health care, while free health care has always been standard in Russia since the Soviet Union. Both countries see the health and education of their citizens as a priority in building a better nation.
We used to see proof of what a strong culture could achieve in America. When Sputnik was first launched, we came together as a culture – education, defense, technology – all in the name of advancement. But only this week, news broke about the Justice Department reaching a settlement with Trump in the $10 billion lawsuit he had brought against the IRS. Since Nixon’s presidency, it has been a tradition for every presidential candidate to release their tax returns to prove that they were financially upstanding. Even though Trump had been promising to release his tax returns since 2014, he never did. And now he’s suing the government – the government that he is currently in charge of and was also in charge of when his tax returns were released in 2020. Trump is demanding that we, the taxpayers, pay him $10 billion because the tax returns that he promised to release were in fact revealed. And the Justice Department, because it is run by his own personal lawyer, has offered him a $1.776 billion settlement, which he is going to take.
It’s an abuse of power beyond any that one can imagine. It is actually a conflict of interest so large that conflict of interest doesn’t even begin to describe it. And for Americans who have repeatedly been told that we “don’t have the money” for health care and education, it is devastating to see this kind of waste. This money, in addition to the money that we see continuously funneled into the perpetual wars America has been fighting in East Asia, could be used to better the lives of American citizens who are seeing persistent declines in education and an ever-decreasing life expectancy. Instead, it is being used to fight a country that, despite facing 47 years of sanctions, has stood up to an American military that is clearly not what it used to be.
How does that happen? How does a country of 93 million people defeat a country of 342.5 million people that, prior to this war with Iran, had what was globally recognized as the largest, most technologically advanced, and best-funded military in the world?
Culture. Well, culture and the fact that the American military was certainly not as billed.
The people of Tehran literally lined up in the streets and formed human chains to protect critical civilian infrastructure after the U.S. and Israel threatened to bomb bridges and power plants. This culture that allows people to come together so readily also allows China, on a larger scale, to come together to further advance its scientific and technological achievements. It also exemplifies the way in which America is not a culture.
Yann LeCun left Meta after heading up its artificial intelligence research for over a decade. His departure came as a result of fundamental disagreements with Mark Zuckerberg on the future of AI. Zuckerberg has made reaching “superintelligence” the primary goal of the company, while Dr. LeCun has said that large language models (LLMs) will never be smart enough to be considered superintelligent, as they would need to understand the physical world, and LLMs will only ever be as knowledgeable as their training data. Keep in mind, Dr. LeCun won a Turing Award – the highest honor in computer science – for his work on neural networks in 2018. This work is seen as foundational to LLMs – the AI models that underpin chatbots. And yet that same scientist is saying that “superintelligence” cannot be reached. Instead of heeding its longtime expert, Meta chose to part ways and invest $14.9 billion in the AI start-up ScaleAI – pouring more money into LLMs.
As for LeCun, he is creating his own start-up with a focus on advanced machine intelligence that would create a kind of AI that was broader in scope than large language models – more of the real world. This is in line with how the Chinese are choosing to approach AI. We came across a paper this week in the magazine Nature that struck us as an example of what that very kind of real-world AI focus and cooperation can bring.
The article was entitled “Slipknot-gauged mechanical transmission and robotic operation” and was written by 43 contributors. These are 43 separate Chinese contributors, all from different institutions, coming together and making a significant breakthrough: “an alternative slipknot-based mechanical transmission mechanism to control the intelligent operation of both human and robotic systems.” Basically, a way to tie very tiny surgical sutures with the correct amount of force, even in places where there are limited supplies and space.
What had been previously lacking in the advancement of robotics was physical dexterity. There was a video that came out of China of the Unitree humanoid robot pulling and balancing a 3,000-pound car, and the footwork was impeccable. But the dexterity was lacking. In this new work, they are killing two birds with one stone, if you will. Not only are they saving lives, but they’re also doing it in a way that increases the applicability of robotics and enhances their overall lead in the field. And it seems that, at least in part, their willingness – indeed, their desire – to work together gets the credit. Contrast this to an America where no one is working together to advance our knowledge or breakthroughs because everyone is simply trying to beat everyone else to the proverbial big payday – all investing in LLMs that will never get up and shake your hand.
But the Chinese are creating robots that will. They still won’t replace humans, but they will be able to answer your questions and help you in the household. All of this shows how critical and how necessary cooperation is in this world. And there are no impediments to it – except those we create ourselves.
America is creating impediments artificially. No one is asking Trump and Xi to grill hot dogs together. But it would be nice to see America collaborating and joining in cooperation rather than constantly creating enemies. It would be nice to see America prioritize the health and education of its citizens so that we can contribute in a meaningful way to a technological race the way we did with the space race. It would be nice to see Americans prioritize a greater focus on collective progress and knowledge-sharing, rather than the pursuit of financial gain and information hoarding. It would be nice to see America return to a culture of collaboration so that we can grow and share a brighter future and stop focusing so much on the materiality of individual wealth and competition. Hopefully we will wake up before it is too late, because everything is hanging in the balance.
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