Friday 3 October 2008

China’s Bronze Medal

The Shenzhou 7 space vehicle has just successfully completed its earth orbiting mission while one of its three-taikonaut-crew has taken China’s first walk in the space.
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Guanyu said...

China’s Bronze Medal

By Shen Dingli
2 October 2008

The Shenzhou 7 space vehicle has just successfully completed its earth orbiting mission while one of its three-taikonaut-crew has taken China’s first walk in the space.

And so China has taken the bronze medal in the international quest of space exploration, after the US and the Soviet Union/Russia. This is a significant lift for Chinese space technology, placing China in a leading position amongst Asia’s space explorers. Within its space program’s mere five years of history it has accomplished manned flight, and it is now envisaged that China’s next space project will be space station and manned exploration of the moon.

Though far behind the US and Russia, Beijing’s effort has put a bit of pressure on NASA – not because of the level of Chinese achievement, but for the pace of its advance. As last month’s Olympics showed unprecedented excellence, it is also possible that, in no distant future, Beijing is likely to forge to the front in some areas of space activity.

Why should humankind of earth explore space? It must be of political, economic, scientific and defense utility.

Politically, it is about face. All states on the earth compete for national standing. The US space program demonstrates American scientific achievements, as it has also represented humankind’s yearning to understand the unknowns of space. Obviously, US views NASA’s accomplishments with patriotism and pleasure at the success of its social system.

There has been no difference in the purpose of Soviet or Russian space exploration. The Soviet Union competed with America and deemed its own space program a high-tech symbol of socialist or communist superiority. In a peaceful race with capitalism – in the terms of Nikita Khrushchev – a space race was about which system was to excel. In a different context, Russia succeeded early this year in first placing its flag on the seabed of Antarctic Ocean. This is another kind of race for face, this time for sovereignty, also for political as well as economic benefits.

The Chinese space program has the same foremost aim. It is developed to show that China can independently send its people into the space as well. So it is a demonstration of China as a competitive nation and the Chinese system as a viable institution. The majority of Chinese must be thrilled to find their country on such a competitive level as it has joined the small club of national manned space programs. The international community must also accord respect to China, accrediting China’s international competitiveness in the high frontier of space, and boosting the government’s legitimacy in governing the country.

Economically, no one should expect a quick return of benefits from a manned space program. At present, there is still a long road to tapping economic utilities through such expensive behavior. For that, human beings of the earth could better use remote sensing and relaying to watch from the space the activities of our species on the ground, providing economic and scientific information.

It is more credible to claim scientific gain from space exploration. No species on earth was able to free itself of gravity until four decades ago. Now several countries are able to build a ship carrying energy enough to shoot it into space with a few people called astronauts. We are only millionths or billionths closer to the greater universe, but we are much closer to near observation of the moon and other planets of the solar system, our little corner of the Galaxy and the entire universe.

China promises that all its space programs are for peaceful purposes. That doesn’t necessarily mean that China doesn’t have a defense component in its space endeavor. This is similar to China’s nuclear weapons program, which, while clearly military, has a peaceful purpose – to defend the country by deterring aggression and rendering peace to potential aggressors through avoidance of mistakes.

China has not had the opportunity yet to set up separate systems of civilian space administration and space defense agency, and has therefore integrated two missions into one establishment. China professes that its purpose of space program is peaceful. Beijing has also claimed that its “satellite experiment” in January 2007 was for peaceful purposes. However, no strategists in the world would misinterpret it as only attaining peace through peaceful means.

The message has been sent and felt. China developed nuclear weapons to break the nuclear monopoly, for counter-deterrence purposes. China demonstrated ASAT capability to break ASAT monopoly, for space balance of power. China will eventually acquire a credible space deterrent to break space monopoly, still for peaceful purpose.

(Shen Dingli is a professor of international relations of Fudan University. He is the Director of Center for American Studies, and Executive Dean of Institute of International Studies at Fudan. )