Center for Strategic Translation

We locate, translate, and annotate material of strategic and historical value that currently exists only in the Chinese language.

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

Is there a trade-off between national security and economic growth?

The Communist Party of China believes it has found an answer to this question--and it wants all of its cadres to know about it.

See our newest translation:

https://t.co/lYhGaWmvOO

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

"In official party terminology, the term “key core technologies” refers to all existing or emerging technologies that promise critical strategic advantages to nations that control their production, distribution, or use."

https://t.co/6Em6NaH7xc

[GMF Indo-Pacific @GMFAsia]

🆕 On the latest China Global podcast episode, @BonnieGlaser is joined by Tanner Greer (@Scholars_Stage) to discuss #China's techno-industrial drive!

Why does President Xi believe China can win a scientific revolution?

@gmfus @CSTranslate

🎧 Listen now: https://t.co/KbYMnLHf6T

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

I think these are fair concerns. At @CSTranslate we write fairly long introductory essays to everything we translate for precisely these reasons.

But the truth is that it is a pretty narrow band of experts who reads both CSIS’s translations and our own, so I would rather them translate sans CST style introductions than not translate at all.

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

The pattern of Xi Jinping's centralized rule, argues these CICIR analysts, can be found in the programs of... Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Washington https://t.co/lKjY7hSh4a

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

As a final note, I want to give credit to @dylanleviking for doing the leg work in crafting this translation.

Read the full thing here: https://t.co/occHwrT5mI

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

Of course, not everyone in China shares these views. There are plenty of sources that focus on some of these other elements of national power ( @CSTranslate translated one here: https://t.co/YCQb1iPj9M).

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

Nevertheless, it is extremely interesting what is *not* included in this narrative. In the introduction to the piece @CSTranslate provides a list:

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

But at the end of the day what matters to these authors is technology--or more specifically, what technology does for the total factor productivity of an economy. "Economic development ultimately relies on obtaining and mastering advanced science and technology."

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

The CICIR authors even argue that American greatness only came about the United States had leaders--Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR--who were able to function as a Xi Jinping-style core leader:

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

This chapter is different. It tries to synthesize these case studies into a series of "general laws" that govern the rise and fall of great powers.

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

What factor is most important to the rise or fall of a great power? According to one influential line of thought in Chinese security circles, the answer is clear: technology.

A 🧵on @CSTranslate's most recent translation:

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

What determines the rise and fall of great powers? Analysts at CICIR--the in-house think tank of China's premier intelligence agency--have one main answer: technology.

https://t.co/lKjY7hSh4a

[T. Greer @Scholars_Stage]

VERRRY interesting translation—more thoughts later, but one remarkable thing about this document is the extent to which the analysts in question boil all geopolitical and strategic questions down to technological capacity. Win the tech race and everything else is secondary.

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

Is history the result of accident, or does it follow a constant logic? Are there laws that determine historical cycles of rise and fall? Chinese intelligence analysts believe that such patterns do exist—and they want CPC cadres to know about them.

https://t.co/lKjY7hSh4a

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

"If the Americans are to be overtaken," says Wang Huning, "Then one thing must be done: surpass them in science and technology."

https://t.co/K3UQaijSCh

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

Thank you! We put a lot of work into our footnotes!

[Vincent Palumbo @vpalsmith33]

Love extended notes in this translation with 2 lovely idioms on alienation & fate "spring breeze" "stick in the mud".

Summons a range of thoughts which are not for Twitter, old & new(ish). Old: Schiller. New: Wang no to Perrow`s abandonment conclusion https://t.co/Pmv2AbRmjM

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

"If the Americans are to be overtaken," says Wang Huning, "Then one thing must be done: surpass them in science and technology."

https://t.co/K3UQaijSCh

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

A defining characteristic of an American, says Wang Huning, is their faith that science and technology can be used to solve any problem.

The drawback to this faith: "Sometimes it is not man that masters technology, but technology that masters man."

https://t.co/K3UQaijSCh

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

When Wang Huning studied U.S. society, he came to one conclusion: "In contemporary human society... it is immensely more difficult for people to obey political and legal commands than it is for them to obey techno-scientific imperatives."

https://t.co/K3UQaijSCh

[Center for Strategic Translation @CSTranslate]

On January 28th, 1986 the Challenger shuttle broke apart 76 seconds into its flight.

In this incident--and the restart of the space shuttle program a few years later--Wang Huning found a double-edged symbol for American science and technology.

https://t.co/K3UQaijSCh