1) >As far as I'm aware, there is no credible research to demonstrate Chinese conducts large influence operations
I didn't mean to imply that they currently do. (Or don't. Idk.) Just that it's an area of major concern, where we'll be vulnerable as a country and lack parity.
But as you say, interesting possibilities.
2) >IMO The ballpoint anecdote has been severely misinterpreted...
I'm aware, but it's still a very relevant case-study. I'm not making fun of them- Manufacturing is hard.
You're correct, in that it was a lack of high precision, high quality manufacturing, and yes, they are catching up quickly...
But there's still a gap (for now) in this area, especially when 1) there is institutional knowledge required to make something correctly, and 2) said knowledge is non-public, a trade-secret, or similarly-restricted, and 3) no one has opened a factory to willingly transfer such knowledge to Chinese factory workers.
I believe one example is in industrial tooling, but I don't know if that's still true.
More abstractly:
When so much industrial knowledge in a country has come from external sources... Find out what they haven't had to learn on their own.
What capabilities will be missing or disadvantaged within their war-machine? Exploit them.
-Obviously China has its own ability to research and invent things (on its own), and I'm not implying that can't. But we're taking about competitive advantage and looking for weaknesses here.
I didn't mean to imply that they currently do. (Or don't. Idk.) Just that it's an area of major concern, where we'll be vulnerable as a country and lack parity.
But as you say, interesting possibilities.
2) >IMO The ballpoint anecdote has been severely misinterpreted...
I'm aware, but it's still a very relevant case-study. I'm not making fun of them- Manufacturing is hard.
You're correct, in that it was a lack of high precision, high quality manufacturing, and yes, they are catching up quickly...
But there's still a gap (for now) in this area, especially when 1) there is institutional knowledge required to make something correctly, and 2) said knowledge is non-public, a trade-secret, or similarly-restricted, and 3) no one has opened a factory to willingly transfer such knowledge to Chinese factory workers.
I believe one example is in industrial tooling, but I don't know if that's still true.
More abstractly:
When so much industrial knowledge in a country has come from external sources... Find out what they haven't had to learn on their own.
What capabilities will be missing or disadvantaged within their war-machine? Exploit them.
-Obviously China has its own ability to research and invent things (on its own), and I'm not implying that can't. But we're taking about competitive advantage and looking for weaknesses here.