The compass is a classic example of a dual invention China provided the world. It opened the opportunity to know the direction one is traveling when sky or landmarks were not available for orientation. For some it opened new opportunities for trade, for others conquest of new territories to rule and for others travel to a new place to call home.

The Invention of the Compass (4.23 min)

Another gift to the world.

The Truly Ancient Chinese Origins Of Everyone's Favorite, Bacon The Daily Meal May 2023

It wasn't until about 10,000 B.C. that pigs became domesticated, slowly adapting them to be less dangerous and easier to handle. By 1,500 B.C., the Chinese discovered they could preserve pork using the abundant salt harvested from industrial salt mines in the central village of Zhongba, China.

US appears to be able to weaponize the most unexpected items.

Bacon was integral as a food item in America in the 20th century. During World War I, it was the go-to fat for cooking in the home until commercially produced lard began replacing it much later. In 1924 Oscar Meyer began selling the first commercially produced pre-packaged and pre-sliced bacon, turning it from a humble home staple to a mass-market commodity. It wasn't until World War II that bacon met its ultimate destiny — as a resource of fuel for making bombs. (my bold)

In fact, 1 pound of bacon grease had a high enough glycerin content to create a 1-pound explosive device, leading the government to begin a campaign encouraging women to exercise their patriotic duties and save their cooking grease for America. They were instructed to collect all excess cooking fat in a wide-mouthed can.

This has the potential of disrupting the use of oil as a foreign policy control method.

This nuclear cargo ship can sail for years without refueling and no one in the West saw it coming Prototyping China Nov 7 2025

China quietly rolled out a thorium-powered container ship in 2025.

It wasn’t just big it was a floating reactor fueled by molten salt, immune to meltdowns, and capable of crossing oceans without burning a drop of oil. This could reshape the future of global shipping and most people still don’t know it happened.
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The use of thorium fuel flipped conventional nuclear logic. Thorium reactors run at atmospheric pressure, so there’s no explosion risk from a pressure buildup. They also come with a negative temperature coefficient, meaning the reactor slows down if it gets too hot. For shipping, this meant more than efficiency. It meant safety, silence, and autonomy. No high-pressure steam systems. No refueling risks. No meltdown scenarios. Instead, the reactor came in a modular design, pre-sealed and factory-built with a 10-year lifespan. After a decade, it was swapped out like a cartridge.
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Key advantages for maritime use:

No moving coolant pumps needed.
No high-pressure systems that could explode.
No need for water cooling, enabling compact design.
Waste is minimal and doesn’t require reprocessing onboard.

China’s design also featured emergency systems: if anything went wrong, the molten salt fuel would drain into a safety tank and solidify, trapping radioactive material.

Pepe Escobar: China's Relentless Innovation Drive Is Reaching Fever Pitch Sputnik Globe Nov 13, 2025 (also at ZeroHedge)

1.The Huawei Factor
Huawei is already testing its first, self-developed EUV lithography machine capable of producing 3nm chips. Trial tests are going full blast at the research center in Dongguan, and mass production should start in 2026.
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Huawei conducts an innovation and intellectual property forum nearly every year, discussing the importance of open/protected intellectual property as well as promoting its Top Ten Inventions: this year they featured, among others, supernodes; the Harmony OS; foldable screens; short-range optical interconnects; and next-generation solid state drives
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There’s no secret: a lot of investment in R&D is behind all these breakthroughs. Over the past five years, Huawei has invested more than 20% of its annual sales revenue in R&D.
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By the end of 2024, Huawei held over 150,000 valid authorized patents globally, ranging from over 50,000 Chinese patents to over 29,000 patents in the U.S. and 19,000 in Europe.
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4. An Early-Warning Detection Big Data Platform
The Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology - China’s number one defense-electronics center and a hub of key innovation even under US sanctions – is developing a ground-breaking "distributed early-warning detection big data platform" capable of tracking up to 1,000 missile launches worldwide in real time.
The platform fuses data from an enormous array of space-, air-, sea-, and ground-based sensors, using advanced algorithms to distinguish warheads from decoys and proceed to action across secure networks.