this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2026
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Maybe a bit irrelevant but why is the article calling it “China’s battery“? I feel like if the researchers were from any other countries academy of science, say France, the title would have simply been something like “scientists discover new ways for fireproof battery”. Maybe it’d say French scientists or so, but not simply “France’s battery”?
Because cool China is so totally innovative unlike the boring west! We gotta hype them up, no one else ever does cool stuff only China brand is cool.
They have been trying to murder the US and EU auto industry and dumping biblical shittons of money into battery technology. the EU and the US aren't trying to compete.
Its still an advancement for all mankind, even if my countries leadership wont let me have one.
China invests in R&D, Trump slashed scientific research.
Not only in R&D but market development.. Like, finding out what people want and selling it to them, exporting them.. The Americans are trying to push pickups on europe...
Actually it’s the other way around.
The internet is all about “China Bad” so calling it China Battery is a way to depreciate this obviously positive discovery.
“Should we just not talk about this awesome new tech?”
“No, let’s put China in front of this totally awesome thing so people will think it’s bad while we hype it up as such a great invention in the article. Oh and don’t mention working conditions, state subsidies, mineral extraction, or any of the usual anti-China talking points, that might make them think it’s not bad”
I’m sorry you live with so much gratuitous hatred in your heart and I pray you can recover some day.
How is pointing out the flaw in your logic "gratuitous hatred"? It doesn't make any sense that the rationale for calling it "China's battery" is to make it sound bad, when the article is clearly extolling the virtues of the battery.
Or is it the part where the other commenter brought attention to the working conditions in China? Because that's not motivated by hatred, but rather class solidarity. How badly do you have to hate Chinese people to believe Chinese workers don't deserve better conditions? What about ethnic minorities in China who are having their cultural heritage stripped away from them?
Is it because the government officials aren't white, so you believe they can do no wrong? So you'll just call any legitimate criticism of them racist? That's like Israel calling anti-zionism anti-semitic. There's nothing sinophobic about legitimate criticisms of the PRC.
People who support China don't seem to comprehend that shitty countries aren't a zero sum game.
You can shit on China's government while also shitting on the US government.
Nice argument you’re having with yourself there, buddy. Seems like you have quite a lot to pour out.
I don’t have any affinity for China, but I also don’t like the gratuitous hate they get all over the internet, nor the reduction of Chinese people’s experience to work drones (what you’re doing).
I had hoped that Lemmy wasn’t gonna be like that, but alas.
Oh, what, you can't handle three paragraphs? Maybe you should go over to mastodon or loops then.
I question your definition of "gratuitous hate," as I haven't seen any examples of actual hatred in this comment chain. You seem like you just can't handle being disagreed with, so you make strawman arguments against the people disagreeing with you.
Calling attention to an abysmal work culture which enforces long working hours and authoritarian hierarchies, and frequently drives people to suicide, isn't reducing people to work drones. And if that's how you interpret that critique, then you have no class solidarity.
And before you cry that I'm singling China out, I'm not. The US rivals them for overall shittiness, while paling by comparison in innovation and development.
But this conversation is about China, and if you can't tolerate a structural critique that isn't even laden with hatred and bias, then, well, I don't know what to tell you...
Is this “china always bad” internet in the room with us right now? Do you deny the positive sentiment in this very thread you’re posting in right now?
Type china into a search engine. Guaranteed it returns a negative sounding article.
What an unhinged thing to say. That is true about literally everything except maybe puppies.
I seem to remember that there is some dangerous dissease that people mainly catch from puppies.
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.
Sodium ion batteries are already in cars in China, this iteration is even safer. You should read the article.
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.
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.
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...
Sodium batteries won't fix the mining issue for rare earths. Lithium is not rare.
My understanding is that the lithium itself isn't the issue, it's that lithium batteries require other rare earths like cobalt where as sodium itself is not only more common than lithium, but it uses more common material like iron or tin in its battery chemistry that are also less problematic.
Go read about rare earths and what they're mostly used for, then come back when you're ready to join the discussion
These batteries are already in production cars. Have been for a while. If you don’t have access to them it’s because of your regressive protectionist government.
No no no. China is Fake News. They don't even make cars. If they made cars, I would have seen Chinese cars driving around in America.
Regressive protectionism isn’t exactly unique to the American auto industry but yea.
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.
Because it's written as Chinese propaganda.
"China Battery!" typically trips everyone's "Fake News! Evil Company! Communists Killed 100 Billion People!" alarm
More like "China lies" about everything.
That's what my government tells me
Maybe you aren't old enough to remember all the "scientific breakthroughs" that came out of China in the early 2000s that were later proven to be false, completely made up, all of which were published by institutions at least partially owned by ministers in China's government.
You mean high speed rail and electric cars?
No.
Hehe. Of course not.
because China doing anything is a geopolitical issue somehow. also, these things are effectively banned in the United States via tariffs
Because (most people believe) China controls its scientists with iron fist and they only research what the state wants them to research.
For me it’s because they have a tendency to… exaggerate, their research results.
Sodium batteries are real though. You can buy them today, their big promise was that they would be cheaper than lithium batteries because sodium is abundant and readily available whereas lithium is a rare mineral. Then lithium prices fell through the floor and the value proposition failed, at least for now. They're also not as energy dense, which is probably what will hold then back from EV use for a while yet, but the claim around being safer holds up.
LOL. Americans don't?