China is beating the United States in the global tech race. They have both caught up to the Americans in critical technological domains, but the Chinese are now leapfrogging the Americans, too. A recent analysis by Mrigakshi Dixit at the trade publication Interesting Engineering demonstrates the dangers of the United States falling behind in the race to dominate the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In this case, China’s growing presence in space with their modular space station that rivals the International Space Station (ISS) has allowed for Chinese scientists to conduct important tests on a new alloy to be used by China’s growing hypersonic weapons development.

Understand the Terms

First, it’s important to understand what is meant by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Essentially, this describes the current technological disruptions that are fundamentally reshaping human lives and civilization. Everything from new alloys to the artificial intelligence bonanza to biotechnology and everything between fall under the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The United States dominated the previous industrial revolution. Beijing is poised to dominate at least a major part of the new industrial revolution.

Second, it is essential that people have a greater understanding of the role that space plays in feeding the development of new technologies in this race for dominance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Space is a place where critical systems can be experimented with in microgravity, testing the limits of new alloys or seeing what new systems, such as AI, can do.

By moving their hypersonic weapons alloy research to space, China is leapfrogging the Americans, who are still struggling to field even hypersonic cruise missiles. Indeed, both the Russians and then the Chinese lead the world in hypersonic weapons research and development.

If rumors are true, then North Korea has a working hypersonic weapon. Some claim that Iran has a hypersonic weapons capacity, too. If these claims are true, that leaves the Americans in fifth place as it relates to hypersonic weapons development.

What is This New Chinese Alloy?

The alloy that China is claiming to have created in space for hypersonic weapons “can withstand extreme temperatures, making it ideal for high-performance aircraft engines,” according to the Interesting Engineering piece. Indeed, it is an entirely new material that Chinese researchers have called “niobium-silicon.” Niobium is a rare metal that survives extreme head and is used in high-performing steel. Remember, China is a global leader in steel production whereas the Americans, who quite literally invented steel, are not.

This new alloy was created by a science team at Northwestern Polytechnical University led by Wei Bingbo, who masterminded a way to produce larger quantities of niobium-silicon by utilizing an advanced cooling method to create high quality niobium-silicon crystals at a faster speed. South China Morning Post explains how the team at Northwestern Polytechnical University incorporated the element hafnium into the alloy, thereby increasing the overall strength of the alloy while at room temperature.

Did Trump’s Sanctions Make This Possible?

China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University has been on the radar of the US government. The Trump administration had placed serious sanctions on the university because of its role in developing radical new technologies that Washington assessed were feeding China’s growing war machine.

However, according to scientists at the university such as Tian Qingfeng, the Trump-era sanctions had the side effect of ensuring that China’s universities basically became one with China’s military development, as the research institutions turned to the Chinese military after more conventional academic resources and access were cut off by the Americans.

Professor Wei echoed Professor Tian’s comments about US sanctions biting his ongoing hypersonic weapons research and how the Chinese military stepping in has facilitated greater, more efficient development of the systems Wei is advancing. In fact, that relationship with China’s military allowed for Wei’s experiments to be placed on the China Space Station (CSS).

Because microgravity changes the behavior of materials, the process of growing the niobium crystals necessary for the production of niobium-silicon and their solidification happen in different ways than on Earth, where gravity is the dominant factor.

Rains of Hell

Thus, the alloy was strengthened and can now be mass-produced by China for use in the hypersonic weapons they are developing.

Chinese researchers, according to Interesting Engineering, have referred to this space-based hypersonic weapons research calls the discovery of the niobium-silicon alloy a “gift from heaven.” I suspect the Americans will view this new Chinese weapon as the “rains of hell.” The United States is dangerously behind China in some key areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This not only has profound economic implications. These developments have very real national security challenges as well.

Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a Senior Fellow at the Center for the National Interest, and a contributor at Popular Mechanics, consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.