← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · arya
Thread ID: 10505 | Posts: 21 | Started: 2003-10-15
2003-10-15 16:54 | User Profile
With Man In Space, China Seeks Prestige On Global Stage JIUQUAN, China (AFP) Oct 15, 2003
People's Liberation Army Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei, 38, was at the controls Wednesday and reported 34 minutes into the flight that he "feels good" and that the craft was operating normally. China's successful launch of a manned space flight Wednesday caps 11 years of a secretive program designed to tell the world the communist giant has arrived as a global leader. When China's first satellite went into orbit in the middle of the Cultural Revolution 33 years ago, it blared the revolutionary tune "The East is Red" to all the countries it passed.
And more than a generation later, with astronaut Yang Jiwei orbiting the Earth, the nationalist pride remains.
"It's very much about saying 'We've arrived as a world leader. Look what we're capable of'," said David Baker, editor of Jane's Space Directory, a British publication.
President Hu Jintao wasted no time in tapping nationalistic sentiment Wednesday, hailing the mission as "an honor for our great motherland" and a "historic step for the Chinese people".
With the launch of Shenzhou V, China is only the third nation after the United States and the former Soviet Union to join the exclusive club of nations capable of sending a man into space -- and willing to pay the price.
It has cost China an estimated 2.3 billion dollars to put a man into space, but it may have been worth every cent in terms of the global prestige that it generates, according to experts.
Scientifically, there is not much China can do with a man in space that could not have been done with an unmanned space program, but that is missing the point, they said.
China is craving for attention with all the earnestness of an emerging power.
China tried to leapfrog foreign space technology in the early 1970s, when it picked and started training a team of astronauts, but soon abandoned the premature attempt.
In the new post-Cold War world, China may have an even larger incentive than before to become a space power.
"Where at one time nations would want to acquire nuclear weapons to join the top table of nations, now China is doing a very smart thing," said Baker.
"Instead of brandishing an enormous nuclear capability, its acquiring something that's unwarlike and difficult to oppose."
The Chinese space program is hugely popular at home, and working for mission control is a dream job for many scientists, even if they could earn much higher salaries in the private sector.
Significantly, there has as of yet appeared no prominent voice arguing that the money could be put to better use elsewhere, and no top politician is likely to pull the plug.
"The program has enjoyed a good level of support over the past 20 years, and that's not going to change much," said Brian Harvey, author of "The Chinese Space Programme: From Conception to Future Capabilities."
With a man in space, the momentum will be there for China's program to move ahead at a brisk pace, according to observers.
As a result, by the time of the Summer Olympics in 2008, there might be two space stations in orbit, the International Space Station and China's own space station, they said.
"The world will be impressed that China is able to do something roughly comparable to (Russian space station) Mir," said Harvey. "The differences will be fairly technical, and the world won't notice."
Not all experts believe nationalist incentive is entirely behind China's space program.
"I think national pride will be the lowest on the list," said Robert Karniol, a Bangkok-based military analyst. "Military and commercial use will be higher on the list."
A similar mixture of commercial rewards and nationalist ambition seems to be behind China's long-term ambition of reaching the moon, initially using unmanned spacecraft.
"China should not drag its feet in exploring the moon," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist at China's lunar exploration program, told the official weekly Beijing Review.
"Whoever gets there first will acquire the resources first ... and as a big country, China cannot stand by and watch."
All rights reserved. é 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
Quick Links SpaceDaily
2003-10-15 17:05 | User Profile
it will be very interesting to see what will be the responce of india and japan,china's main space rivals in asia.
although both japan and india conglatulated china,it will be interesting to know what will be their next step.
and after china's launch, will america reconsider launching manned missions to moon and probably mars, instead of sending unmanned probes?
2003-10-15 17:12 | User Profile
This launch is a clear testament to the superiority of hind... wait a minute :lol:
The Chinese are much more adept at absorbing and reverse-engineering someone else's technology (in this case Russian technology), than hindu coolies.
2003-10-15 19:16 | User Profile
Behold the next super-power. With plently of countries [like Israel] to sell them the latest advancements in technology, I exspect the Chinese space program to grow at an alarming rate.
The Chinese will not flinch at dead atronauts like the Americans do. Whereas the Challanger put everything on hold for ten years, and Columbia has everything on hold right now. The Chinese could watch ten shuttles in a row explode, applaud the astronuats for their heroism, and send ten more like it's nothing.
The Chinese need to liquidate millions of males. In a few years they will have a male supplus in the tens of millions. When the sleeping beast of the east rises again the entire world will feel it. Think of the 300,000 Chinese that marched to their deaths in Korea. Imagine 30 million robotic Chinese windup soldiers marching in every direction, only this time armed with U.S. developed laser blinding weapons, intercontinental missles, nukes, advanced fighter planes in huge numbers, advanced spy satellites, the cabability to destroy U.S. satellites in space. It will make WWII seem like pleasant memories.
The Chinese could sweep across Russia and be in central Europe in no time.
2003-10-15 21:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]Behold the next super-power. With plently of countries [like Israel] to sell them the latest advancements in technology, I exspect the Chinese space program to grow at an alarming rate.
The Chinese will not flinch at dead atronauts like the Americans do. Whereas the Challanger put everything on hold for ten years, and Columbia has everything on hold right now. The Chinese could watch ten shuttles in a row explode, applaud the astronuats for their heroism, and send ten more like it's nothing.
The Chinese need to liquidate millions of males. In a few years they will have a male supplus in the tens of millions. When the sleeping beast of the east rises again the entire world will feel it. Think of the 300,000 Chinese that marched to their deaths in Korea. Imagine 30 million robotic Chinese windup soldiers marching in every direction, only this time armed with U.S. developed laser blinding weapons, intercontinental missles, nukes, advanced fighter planes in huge numbers, advanced spy satellites, the cabability to destroy U.S. satellites in space. It will make WWII seem like pleasant memories.
The Chinese could sweep across Russia and be in central Europe in no time.[/QUOTE]
Man you have been watching too many James Bond films and reading too many Wall Street Journal editorials. China is in no position to be a global superpower. Maybe a regional power, but not global. If a global superpower, than a economic but not military superpower.
If you read into Chinese history, they've always been more or less an isolationist nation. Need we forget they built the Great Wall to keep the mongol hordes out. China has never really engaged in aggressive foreign policy and theres several reasons why.
First off, China is geo-politically surronded. Russia to the North. India to the Southwest. Islamic Fundelmentalism in the Northwest. Japan/US to the East. Vietnam is not exactly friends with them either to the south. And as for China sweeping across Russia and into Central Europe, that didn't happen when China invaded Vietnam. In fact Vietnam held its own.
China has easily been overruned several times before in its history(most famous examples were the Mongols). China literally has to spend so much of its resources trying to maintain its defenses that any kind of military offensive in unthinkable. China is also trying to counter ethnic seperatism in many of its provinces like Tibet and the Muslim northwest. So China is really a "paper tiger".
Theres even a book out titled "the Coming Collaspe of China" that explains how China is not as strong as so many think it is(or will be).
2003-10-15 22:37 | User Profile
I'm not saying that this will all happen tomorrow, or they will definately invade Russia. The Chinese will probably sit tight for at least another 10 years before making any major aggressive moves. However, we know that by 2010 China will have a surplus of young males numbering in the tens of millions. They will have to export them somehow.
It's true that the Chinese are naturally pacifists and unagressive, but wait until you have 20-30 million young males with no chance of finding a single women in China. I think they'll get a little restless!
Also, remember that the Chinese are no longer armed with just AK-47s like in the Korean War. Now they have sophisticated military hardware. The fact that they just became the third country to send someone into space in pretty self-evident that they have come a long way.
I never watch James Bond movies, or read the Wall Street Journal. My Chinese predictions are based on population studies more than anything else. I just can't see the Chinese sitting still forever.
2003-10-15 23:26 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]Imagine 30 million robotic Chinese windup soldiers marching in every direction, only this time armed with U.S. developed...[/QUOTE]
Slaves are lousy workers. Besides, modern warfare has little to do with the number of men. Still, you are right, that China is becoming an increasingly powerful nation. In 50 years, China may will be a global super power while America has gone the way of California.
2003-10-16 01:21 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]
Also, remember that the Chinese are no longer armed with just AK-47s like in the Korean War. Now they have sophisticated military hardware. The fact that they just became the third country to send someone into space in pretty self-evident that they have come a long way.
Ahh yeah the Chinese were not armed with AK-47s in the Korean War. The Russian Army barely had them in total service then, why the hell would the Chinese have them before the Russians? Most Chinese were armed with Mosin-Nagants and SKS rifles, basically WW2 surplus stuff the Russians had.
And the most advanced technology China has today in terms of military hardware are the stuff they've bought from Russia. And yet many arms experts agree that Chinese copies of Russian weapons are of poorer quality than the original Russian versions. Even Mikhail Kalashnikov(the inventor of the AK-47) admits the Chinese versions are pure sh*t. So in other words, China is not that impressive in terms of technology. It still laggs far behind America and Russia.
I never watch James Bond movies, or read the Wall Street Journal. My Chinese predictions are based on population studies more than anything else. I just can't see the Chinese sitting still forever.[/QUOTE]
China has always been the most populous nation on earth and it has never tried to conquer the world. China was up untill the 1800's the world's largest commerical market, yet it was Western Europe that dominated the world economy during that period. It took only 150,000 Manchu nomads to conquer and rule 150 million Chinese.
2003-10-16 03:07 | User Profile
Where'd the Chinese get a rubber band big enough to fling him that high? Clinton or Gore sell off our "Giant Rubber Band" secrets? Hope you can hold your breath, Yang.
[I]BOOOIIINNGG!!!!![/I]
Ausonius
2003-10-16 03:10 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ausonius]Where'd the Chinese get a rubber band big enough to fling him that high? Clinton or Gore sell off our "Giant Rubber Band" secrets?
[I]BOOOIIINNGG!!!!![/I]
Ausonius[/QUOTE]
:huh: where did that come from?
2003-10-16 03:13 | User Profile
[QUOTE=perun1201]:huh: where did that come from?[/QUOTE]
Sorry perun,
I just got a case of the giggles, I guess. I saw the header "CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST MAN INTO SPACE", and all I could think of was a giant 60-story slingshot with some little chinese guy in it with a bag lunch and a O2 bottle. Sorry.
Ausonius
2003-10-16 03:16 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ausonius]Sorry perun,
I just got a case of the giggles, I guess. I saw the header "CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST MAN INTO SPACE", and all I could think of was a giant 60-story slingshot with some little chinese guy in it with a bag lunch and a O2 bottle. Sorry.
Ausonius[/QUOTE]
:lol: Oh! Yeah I really do wonder how good quality this Chinese spacecraft is. Remember people, China is famous for its cheap sh*tty merchandise, which often includes weaponry and such.
2003-10-16 03:20 | User Profile
perun,
Sorry to continue this, but I'm sitting here laughing... Maybe their recovery equipment includes a giant catchers' mitt on wheels. That way, they can get 5000 coolies to drag it around.. just the thought of 5000 of those goofy little hats in a line, running all over the Chinese countryside dragging a giant mitt around.. no [I]WAIT[/I]! Over there! [I]rrruummbble...[/I]
Ausonius
2003-10-16 03:39 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ausonius]perun,
Sorry to continue this, but I'm sitting here laughing... Maybe their recovery equipment includes a giant catchers' mitt on wheels. That way, they can get 5000 coolies to drag it around.. just the thought of 5000 of those goofy little hats in a line, running all over the Chinese countryside dragging a giant mitt around.. no [I]WAIT[/I]! Over there! [I]rrruummbble...[/I]
Ausonius[/QUOTE]
:lol: :lol: :lol:
** "My mom saids that theres a lot of black people in China." --Eric Cartman South Park**
2003-10-16 03:53 | User Profile
There were jokes about the Chinese in Russia too. One I remember is about the Chinese "taikonauts" throwing crooked logs into the burner to steer their spaceship.
2003-10-16 03:56 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]There were jokes about the Chinese in Russia too. One I remember is about the Chinese "taikonauts" throwing crooked logs into the burner to steer their spaceship.[/QUOTE]
ROTFL! Of course the Chinese aren't capable of :dung:, although they like to view themselves superior to us Russkies. Well you know how China disliked us Soviets for our "Revisionist" tendencies towards "Social Imperialism". Long Live Chairman Mao! :lol:
2003-10-16 04:09 | User Profile
Let's face it, the chinks will prosper in the West, as long as whitey provides infrastructure for them and the economy is good. They are good parasites, different from the zhids, but parasites nevertheless. The edge they have is their obliviousness to the Western norms of ethics (they lie, cheat and steal), their readiness to spend inordinate amount of effort to excel by any means at the formal measurements of abilities, like tests, and their ant-like information exchange and cooperation.
The Chinaman may be, on average, less imaginative and creative, but they aren't corrupted by white social illnesses.
Unlike the zhids, chinamen don't try to change the system, but like ants they will find a way to co-exist and exploit the system.
2003-10-16 04:52 | User Profile
It probably is a piece of shit, but the Chinese won't care if lots of astronaunts die like the US does.
[QUOTE=perun1201]:lol: Oh! Yeah I really do wonder how good quality this Chinese spacecraft is. Remember people, China is famous for its cheap sh*tty merchandise, which often includes weaponry and such.[/QUOTE]
2003-10-16 05:03 | User Profile
[QUOTE=heritagelost]It probably is a piece of shit, but the Chinese won't care if lots of astronaunts die like the US does.[/QUOTE]
Maybe so, but attriction doesn't always win.
2003-10-16 13:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE=madrussian]There were jokes about the Chinese in Russia too. One I remember is about the Chinese "taikonauts" throwing crooked logs into the burner to steer their spaceship.[/QUOTE]
Heh.. not bad. And I thought Russians didn't have a sense of humor... just goes to show you how wrong some ideas can be.
Ausonius
2003-10-16 16:26 | User Profile
i agree that main threat to russia from china is not milatary or economic,but demographic.
it will be difficult for china to become world power for the simple reason that it is sorrounded by equally ambitious nations from russia to india to japan. america become world power because american neighbours are weak and there are nobody to confront it in its neighbourhood.