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The paper reveals a blueprint of China's space-related intentions as well as its space principles, which is not to wage a space war

A paper describing China's space plans for the next five years shows that it's going to be an ambitious journey through the end of 2016, comprising of space laboratories, manned spaceships and more. 

The paper, which was released Thursday, reveals a blueprint of China's space-related intentions over the next five years as well as its space principles, which is not to wage a space war.

China's space program, which is ran by the military, made the U.S. a bit nervous four years ago after it fired a ground-based missile into one of its own dead satellites. The U.S. was concerned that this could lead to the need for a space military in case of war. In fact, a report from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) last month warned the U.S. of China's plans to attack U.S. space defenses.

However, China's paper insists that its intentions are good. Its space principles resemble those spelled out in previous reports of China's space progress, which consist of peaceful development, enhancing international cooperation and deep space exploration.

"China always adheres to the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes weaponization or any arms race in outer space," said the recent paper.

The paper further detailed China's plans through the end of 2016, which includes the construction of space stations, space laboratories, ship freighters and a manned spaceship.


In addition, China hopes to improve launch vehicles, meteorological satellites, communications and broadcasting to form a global satellite navigation system.

With these changes and additions, China hopes to create a progressive space program worthy of matching the U.S. and Russia's programs. It has already come a long way in the past decade alone, from launching a man into space, orbiting and collecting data from the moon and successfully launching several Long March rockets.

Sources: Google, The New York Post

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RE: We come in peace
By yomamafor1 on 12/30/2011 7:00:16 PM , Rating: 2
And are those copies better then russian equipment or not? My guess is not.

So because the Chinese's material science has yet to catch up with the rest of the world, you're arguing that we should allow them to continue to steal other company's IP?

By isolating them, simply because we don't trust them, we are forcing them to develop that creativity. And they have, considering how fast their space program is racing ahead. If we'd had simply partnered, we could've gone with a "we research, you build" symbiosis type of relationship. They can't do anything without our research, we can't do anything because stuff has to be actually built. Instead we're left with a 2nd space race where the winner is going to take all, and it's going to be just as close as the first one was.

That thinking might work in the 80~90s. It won't work now. The Chinese is developing their own technologies, whether or not we establish partnership with them. Furthermore, not only the Chinese companies steal their foreign partners' IPs, the Chinese government also facilitate that theft. Any company that want to do business in China is required to partner with a Chinese company. This was the reason why a lot of companies refused to do business in China for fear of IP theft.

Just because the US continue to hire them to be the manufacturers rather than the designers, doesn't mean the Chinese companies want to always be the OEMs.

