In 2013, China became just the third country – following the US and Russia – to achieve a soft landing of instruments on the moon, landing the “Jade Rabbit” (or Yutu) lunar lander. The significance of this, and other China National Space Administration (CNSA) missions, however, has been the national reaction within China. According to National Geographic’s Michael Greshko, millions of people followed the rover’s activity on social media. In 2014, Yutu was believed to have failed after being unresponsive. However, the rover then ‘awoke,’ and a statement on its official account indicating that it was still functional was reposted over 60,000 times and commented on another 40,000 times. Around 100,000 lamented its death when Chinese government
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Considering the relatively delayed entry of China and India into space explorations alongside their ambitious plans and schedules, this is an easy parallel to draw. Much in the same way that both Russia and the United States were looking to assert their dominance in the Cold War, both India and China are trying now to establish themselves as global players in space exploration. However, as critical difference is found in the geopolitical …show more content…
Rather than China spending decades and billions of dollars each year – per Roberto A. Ferdman of The Washington Post – essentially repeating processes that have already been achieved by their predecessors in the US and Russia, an effort should be made to actively include the CNSA in international space exploration projects. While the case can, and has – as previously mentioned – been made that collaboration with the CNSA could pose a national security threat to the United States, this is not the stance of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which found that the current policy represents, “negative sum consequences for U.S. military
Considering the relatively delayed entry of China and India into space explorations alongside their ambitious plans and schedules, this is an easy parallel to draw. Much in the same way that both Russia and the United States were looking to assert their dominance in the Cold War, both India and China are trying now to establish themselves as global players in space exploration. However, as critical difference is found in the geopolitical …show more content…
Rather than China spending decades and billions of dollars each year – per Roberto A. Ferdman of The Washington Post – essentially repeating processes that have already been achieved by their predecessors in the US and Russia, an effort should be made to actively include the CNSA in international space exploration projects. While the case can, and has – as previously mentioned – been made that collaboration with the CNSA could pose a national security threat to the United States, this is not the stance of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which found that the current policy represents, “negative sum consequences for U.S. military