John Strickland · Works at National Space Society
This is a very hard question. We would like to cooperate with all countries in space programs. I am against much of the ITAR rules which have devastated our space industry and simply driven it to Europe which has less scruples about dealing with certain countries. The Chinese Goverenment is unfortunately currently in a very agressive and controntational mode, not too different from Iran but for very different reasons. They are actively stealing our industrial secrets and have several teams that are contstantly trying to infiltrate our goverment computer systems. The Chinese space program itself does not theaten us, and could give us a new reason for a space race, even if that is a bad reason for one, since the space race path leads towards flags and footprints, more expendable vehicles and away from space development. The Chinese military could threaten our communications and surveilance dominence in Earth orbiting satellites, by destroying or interferering with them. If the government was not so aggressive I would want to work with them right away. We could possibly work on them with unmanned projects in the interim. I am torn in both directions on this question.
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