More space for China

Beijing’s space ambitions are ongoing.  The Chinese space walk performed a few weeks ago demonstrated its enormous capacity to travel far in a short amount of time; very far, in this case. According to a State Council’s 2006 white paper, the space program is focused on putting an independent laboratory into orbit and the exploration of the moon by robot or, perhaps, a team of astronauts. These objectives are scheduled to be completed before 2020.

China insists the dual nature of its program: peaceful and independent.  Undoubtedly, the space program is inseparable from China’s oft-repeated overall strategy based on strengthening its sovereignty at all levels.  A good example of this is the effort to build its own system for positioning spacecraft.  And, on the other hand, it is paying special attention to improving its technological capabilities, an aspect that had also experienced remarkable progress in a short time, but represents a challenge to completing the transition to this new model of development as outlined by the authorities.  The project includes scientific observation, data collection, improving telecommunications and broadcasting.

International cooperation in space has precedence, though limited, as in the case of Russia. France and the European Space Agency (China has participated in the Galileo Program since 2003), or Brazil, among others, have cooperated on promoting a commercial aspect oriented towards developing countries.  Mutual understanding with NASA is still complicated, given Pentagon reluctance to share sensitive technology that could be used by the Chinese army, which controls China’s space program.

China’s traditional obscurity on military affairs may hinder any chance at close cooperation.  However, the magnitude of the space challenge makes overcoming the rivalries and fostering a heightened level of international collaboration essential.  At this point, China can hardly be excluded from now on.  In just 15 years of the space program, Beijing has shown improved its capabilities tremendously. Its bet on innovation will give everyone a lot to talk about in the coming years.  The spacewalk makes China, in its own right, a member of major space powers club, countries which it may surpass in a short time.
 

In internal matters, Chinese leaders recently repeated to their citizens their willingness and ability to add achievements to their formula strategy for modernizing and opening up China to the outside world. This occurs as the Party Day and the autumn session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party approaches, and following the dazzling Olympic and Paralympic Games. It all serves to reinforce the nationalist factor of the modernization/opening process.  The landmark space walk was not accompanied by the national anthem “The East is Red”, as happened in 1971 with its first satellite. It preferred to fly the national flag in the hands of taikonauta Zhai Zhigang.