One of our best examples is Thomas Friedman.

I believe this Chinese decision to go green is the 21st-century equivalent of the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik — the world’s first Earth-orbiting satellite. That launch stunned us, convinced President Eisenhower that the U.S. was falling behind in missile technology and spurred America to make massive investments in science, education, infrastructure and networking — one eventual byproduct of which was the Internet.

Nonsense. A historian of technology would note that the possibility of space shots emerged as a consequence of general technological development, making it inevitable that someone would be the first to do it, or at least be credited with the accomplishment, but that they in no way actually did anything of note. It could happen, so it would happen. It's not a political issue, it's an issue that politicians sought to exploit - then and now.

Internetworking is the same. Diverse networks existed, so bridges between them were inevitable, and eventual adoption of some standard that enabled broad interconnection was inevitable too. It has nothing to do with politics or space races or wars, it's technological evolution. If not then, soon after. If not by them, someone else.

Well, folks. Sputnik just went up again: China’s going clean-tech.

They have a very long way to go, starting from a long, long way behind, with many, many daunting impediments. Only the most crass and foolish could herald this as some sort of threat. It's merely aspirational, and as with the Soviets is happy talk to distract attention from the serious problems faced by a regime with poor foundations.

Technology that is cheaper and has fewer adverse impacts - cleaner-tech - isn't novel. It's what we have been doing all of these years without all of the silly aspirational chatter. As it becomes possible it becomes inevitable. If you truly wish to help then work to accelerate general technological evolution rather then squandering resources on political circuses.