Acidic, US media: The US has been developing laser weapons for many years, but repeatedly encountered setbacks; so China shouldn't be ahead of the US?

At the Chinese military parade, the appearance of the high-power laser weapon LY-1 caused the American media across the ocean to lose their composure.

The US publication "The War Zone" acknowledged the advanced nature of LY-1 with gritted teeth, but could not help complaining about the long-term setbacks the US Navy has faced in deploying laser weapons.

The implication seems to be: How could China have skipped the long development period and directly come up with a field-deployable, practical laser cannon? That's impossible! That's unscientific!

The US has long formed an ingrained logic of superiority in laser weapons: High-power directed energy technology should be mastered, deployed, and defined in applications by the US first.

Once China takes the lead in this field, they start to change their tone and belittle it: saying that lasers are easily affected by weather, saying that it's difficult to deploy on ships, saying that we studied this ten years ago.

Doesn't that sound like the student who got the first place in the exam, when he failed, starts to attack the one who got the first place for taking shortcuts and memorizing answers?

This is a typical case of technological hegemony anxiety — you cannot be ahead of me, and even if you are, it must be through cheating.

But the problem is, China has never claimed to compete with the US in the number of papers, nor is it making PowerPoint weapons shows, but rather steadily moving laser weapons from the test field onto the ship.

The discomfort of the American media comes from a simple fact: China is no longer a follower, but has begun to appear in the first tier of technology releases, even directly bringing out next-generation weapon systems and marching them in formation at Tiananmen Square.

This sense of overtaking is more glaring than the laser itself for the US, which has always considered itself the leader in technology.

So they start to make all sorts of logically off-track comments: You can't be ahead of me, because I myself haven't succeeded yet.

This mindset is not news, but a sickness.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842313316536332/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.