The Chinese counterexample is important. The author says "base b doesn't have a single symbol for b" - but Chinese has a symbol for 10 (十) and even 20 (廿). Havi

The Chinese counterexample is important. The author says "base b doesn't have a single symbol for b" - but Chinese has a symbol for 10 (十) and even 20 (廿). Having a symbol for the base doesn't mean the system isn't positional. It just means you have shortcuts for common numbers. So the article's main diagnostic is flawed