While I don't completely disagree with the premise, I'm not sure that having the most supercomputers in the TOP500 is evidence of it. The PRC is striving to be

While I don't completely disagree with the premise, I'm not sure that having the most supercomputers in the TOP500 is evidence of it. The PRC is striving to become a global competitor in as many fields as it can, as quickly as possible. But sometimes they go after the status symbols of achievement versus actual productive achievements. Both the ghost cities that stood initially empty and the supercomputer clusters that lay idle are results of this pursuit of the appearance of being a global player. [Apologies for not providing references here] Most countries these days (post cold war) don't build super computers for bragging rights; they build them for defined tasks that drive their specification. Economics, budgetary concerns, and even power consumption often trump absolute performance when specifying a machine for a task. The rise of clustered machines with commodity parts also distorts things since a faster computer (by some measures) can be made by adding more nodes rather than applying any fundamentally "better" technology. That's not to say that the PRCs efforts are in vain. Focusing on competitiveness has produced results, and politics notwithstanding, the existence of these capabilities will create opportunities for their use. But yeah, I was bummed about the SSC (especially given the decision's geopolitical context). I also agree that given fundamental research's past dividends, we should be funding a whole lot more of it.