NASA Is In The China Hot Seat Again – Twice
Culberson Will “Vigorously Enforce” Restrictions on NASA-China Relationship, SpacePolicyOnline
“Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) said today that NASA did not fully inform Congress about the recent State Department-led meeting in Beijing on bilateral U.S.-China civil space cooperation as required by law. He stressed that he plans to “vigorously enforce” the law, which requires NASA to notify Congress in advance of such meetings that technology transfer, for example, will not occur.”
Culberson Reaction to Indictment of NASA Supervisors
“Yesterday’s indictment is further proof of widespread negligence at NASA and throughout the Obama Administration when it comes to protecting U.S. intellectual property and sensitive information. “I want to thank my predecessor Congressman Frank Wolf who understood the threat posed by the Chinese. His leadership on this issue exposed many of the problems that have led us to this point.”
NASA Supervisors Charged in Chinese Spy Case, Daily Caller
“Two NASA supervisors were criminally indicted Tuesday under U.S. espionage laws for “willfully violating” national security regulations while allowing a visiting Chinese foreign national to gain “complete and unrestricted access” to the space agency’s Langley Research Center, according to the U.S. Attorneys office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The indictments of NASA Langley supervisors Glenn A. Woodell and Daniel J. Jobson cap a federal investigation into the two supervisor’s decision to permit Bo Jiang unrestricted access for two years at Langley. Bo Jiang was deported back to China in 2013.”
Bolden Says Ban On China Space Interaction Is Temporary, Previous Post – October 2015
“The reason I think that where we are today is temporary is because of a practical statement that we will find ourselves on the outside looking in, because everybody … who has any hope of a human spaceflight program … will go to whoever will fly their people,” Bolden said. His comments were echoed by China.”
Previous China postings
Why don’t you roll up your dainty little xenophobia and shove it up a place so dark and narrow, that due to the laws of relativity it somehow time traveled to the 19th century, the time when you can freely and openly sprout your xenophobia unfit for a modern time?
Please explain how posting a news article about the American government prosecuting some of its own officials for failure to uphold their legal responsibilities for export control of information deemed by the American government as export sensitive constitutes an undue fear of foriegners.
Just because a law was writen on paper doesn’t mean it is just. A law could have the intent to discriminate but disguised that reason behind other, seemingly objective reasons. To follow an unjust law is unjust. To punish someone for not following an unjust law is also unjust.
Unjust laws restrict NASA’s ability to operate optimally, because it limits the pool of talents NASA can draw from.
Kim Davis, is that you? Because only Kim Davis gets to pick and choose which laws she has to obey.
Nope, it’s Martin Luther King Jr!
Can we just write off 20-30 Billion of our debt to China and call it even ? Let the Chinese fund NASA every year, and they can have unfettered access to any and all of the NASA research performed that year. Perhaps they want to purchase Aerojet Rocketdyne while they are at it.
And your evidence that Bo Jiang was stealing restricted information is … the fact that he was Chinese. The FBI went over all his belongings with a fine toothed comb and found nothing illegal.
I agree, but I do find this a little uncomfortable. I would prefer China to have less debated and more transparent policies on the subject. It is awkward to defend the right to oppose and ignore unjust laws, when the victims are citizens of a nation which does not appear to agree with that principle.
I will argue that aliens are more affected by the laws of the United States than their home country, and that the aliens doesn’t always upheld the same principle their home country supports. They have to pay taxes and follow American laws much like Americans.
When said aliens are physically resident in the United States it seems entirely appropriate to me that U.S. law should rule. Do you disagree? I worked outside the U.S. at one time. During that time I understood that I was subject to the laws of the countries in which I was working. If I’d had any problem with that, I had the option of quitting and leaving.
US law does apply. As a permanent US resident Bo was not, under ITAR, a “foriegn person”. Despite this he did not have access to NASA “secrets”. I thought US law included the right to be treated equally without discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin.
Tough to accuse China of violating human rights when our own “secret police” throw a legal US permanent resident in jail on the orders of a powerful Congressman, for no reason other than the fact that he happens to be Chinese.
With that attitude, you should try for an appointment of some kind in the Obama administration. Given the open declaration of our Chooser in Chief that he gets to pick and choose which laws get enforced you should fit right in.
Seriously, what is “unjust” about a law that prohibits the citizens of a self-declared enemy nation from accessing American technical know-how? Are you also upset that the citizens of many non-Asian nations are also thus excluded or is it only when the law applies to a lot of people who share your tribal genetics that you get your nose out of joint?
“self-declared enemy nation…”
Geez, when did THAT happen? And to think we let them make our EVERYTHING WE BUY for us.
Oh well, at least they aren’t really dangerous, so dangerous we can’t even have trade with them… like Cuba.
Ohh. I got chills down my spine just saying that name.
Under US law the holder of a permanent resident visa is not a “foreign person” as defined under ITAR. If you are actually concerned about export of critical technology to China I suggest you talk to Apple, HP, and Boeing. After they stop laughing….
But isn’t Apple etc. how we IMPORT critical technology FROM China?
Calling potential technology transfer and spying “xenophobia” would seem to be a bit naive. At least part of the basis for these restrictions were when Hughes helped China fix a guidance system problem after a failed China satellite launch. This guidance system improvement could be used to improve ballistic missile technology.
Bo completed graduate school in the US but was hired at the Institute of Aerospace because the research he had done in China on collision avoidance for aircraft was felt to be original and innovative. So the technology transfer was from there to here.
Main Event: Xenophobia vs. Tribalism
Who’s fighting on the under card?
You tell ’em, Wendy.
I’m disappointed to see the daily caller referenced here. It’s a right-wing propaganda organ, not a legitimate news site.
Then YOU go find another article with detail since the local paper makes you pay money to read/quote their stuff. That said, right wingers have their right to say stupid stuff which is what this is all about in the first place.
The point here is that Daily Caller is about as reliable as, say, the Huntington Post; neither publication can be taken at face value because while a story might seem fully reported often there are pieces missing.
1. if you do not like the links then go find me a better one 2. right wing xenophobia is what this is all about.
delete
I’m not particularly familiar with this newspaper, but after reading the quotation here and the linked article, I can’t figure out the relevance of your comment. The article appears to be simply a report of events that happened. Are you alleging that the reporter or newspaper was somehow involved in these events? I don’t see that the reporter has interjected any personal opinion, political or otherwise, into the article. Yet for some reason you consider them to be an illegitimate source of information and so conclude that it was invalid to link their reporting of factual events here?
If I remember the case correctly, Bo was arrested for having controlled information on a laptop. The charge was later changed when they didn’t find any controlled information on the laptop. If the reporter.in question knew both facts, but only reported the former, that would be biased reporting. But the story and still appear reasonable and plausible. Lies omission are still lies.
Exactly why I quoted it.
The editor/founder DOES work for FOX News and will not print anything contrary to his employer, so you would have to assume a potential for journalistic conflict of interest. So there’s that. It’s just like referencing something from Mother Jones (on the flip side). The way I see it, either we’re talking about politics here or we’re not. If certain known right-or-left-leaning sites or politicians are referenced, it definitely fans the flames of political discussion particularly with the election looming.
1. if you do not like the link then go find me a better one 2. right wing xenophobia is what this is all about.
3. right wingers say the same thing about left wingers and their websites so I guess I should not link to anyone to make you happy.
I prefer to listen to both sides to be better informed about the issues and the arguments regarding it from both sides. I tend to get leery of comments that try to silence any opposing views.
2. right wing xenophobia is what this is all about.
No, it’s about efforts to defend the nation from its declared enemies, among which China is very definitely to be counted. If you dispute this viewpoint, then address the substantive arguments.
China graduates more scientists and engineers every year than the US. 90% of high school students in Shanghai go on to college. The Chinese people I know succeed because they are smart and work hard. It’s the American way.
As to technology transfer, I suggest you talk to Apple, HP, and Boeing, after they stop laughing. I suggest you go to China and ride the high-speed trains. They aren’t a copy of American technology. They are better than American technology.
As my Chinese friend points out, China was the world’s leading civilization for a thousand years. The past century or two saw occupation by Western powers demanding tribute (including the US!) and later by Japan, then a long civil war, and a few decades of Communism. But to a nation with five thousand years of history, that’s just a brief
interlude.
Are they our enemies? The Chinese I know forget the Korean War as we forget Vietnam. But they remember the Flying Tigers, when a few brave American volunteers came to their aid in their greatest time of need. Later, when Dolittle’s raiders crash-landed in China, thousands of ordinary Chinese went to their deaths rather than give up the American flyers.
There is a lot of history between the US and China. It’s not a simple question.
if you really feel China is a “declared enemy” then you’d better be far more concerned about Walmart, every Manhattan and San Francisco real estate company, every US tech company, and the US stock market dealing with them than with one guy’s personal laptop with an imaginary file on it.
Just saying.
2: Of course that’s true and was the point I made above. I didn’t that your post was about right wing bias, although I should have when looking at who you sourced; and since that’s the thrust of your post, then ‘better’ links wouldn’t be relevant.
3: equating the craziness of the right is a sort of false equivalence. A bit like talking about evolution but including creationism to be fair. Just nuts.
By which I assume you mean it doesn’t peddle the left-wing propaganda you’ve come to believe is true. By the way, Frederick Douglass was a nasty right-wing Republican too you know.
Oh brother.
Do me a favor. Google “Dixiecrats” and “Southern Strategy” and get back to me for your homework.
“Jiang, a Chinese national, was arrested at Dulles Airport in 2013 while
trying to flee to China with a computer containing sensitive government
information.”
Did they ever find anything other than porn on that computer he was taking back to China??
Not that I know of.
Apparently we are supposed to believe sensitive government information is in the porn movies.
Not even a single file not approved by ITAR. Even the claimed pornography was never revealed. But the biggest lie was the claim in Wolf’s claim (appearing in numerous press reports) that the file was on a NASA computer, so it would constitute misuse of NASA IT assets. In fact that is what the FBI forced Jiang to admit, to cover their exposed hindquarters after arresting him without cause. But guess what? He didn’t have a NASA computer. If he had, they would have arrested him for theft. The whole affair reflects very poorly on the agency.
More so on Rep. Wolf.
Wolf is gone, but Culberson seems to have stepped into his xenophobic shoes with a vengence. Is there something in the water?
note how Culbertson used the phrase “did not fully inform.” The key word is “fully.”
Interesting… I thought law enforcement was the responsibility of the Executive Branch. Maybe Rep. John Culberson has made some changes to the Constitution that I wasn’t aware of…
Indeed, so did his predecessor Congressman Frank Wolf, who ordered Bo Jiang, a Chinese researcher at the Institute of Aerospace jailed for weeks, without access to counsel, on charges of … being Chinese.
One minor correction, since I’m at a NASA center this week, and I was at one last week for another meeting. At JPL and GSFC, you don’t automatically get to “wander around.” Visitors who are US citizens or green card holders get temporary badges to the areas required by their visit. Foreign nationals without green cards require an escort, while escorts may or may not be required for citizens and green card holders. For longer term visitors (who need regular access) and employees, a green card just allows you to file paperwork for routine access.
May need to read that again. Thanks 🙂 Been more than 45 years.
Wolf announced to the press, based on nothing but his own prejudice, that Bo was a Chinese spy. Bo, deciding he had worn out his welcome in the US, booked a flight to China. Wolf ordered the FBI to arrest Bo before he “escaped”, and they caught him in the departure lounge and interrogated him in English, which was not his first language. Apparently no FBI agents actually speak Chinese. They ordered him to show them all his computer equipment, which he did. Then they pounced. AHA, you didn’t tell us about this flash drive in your checked luggage! They arrested him and went over his property for weeks, finding not so much as a single ITAR violation.
They were afraid of looking like idiots, so they offered to let him go home if he would plead guilty to downloading pornography onto a NASA computer. The alternative was to be held in jail indefinitely without charges.
There are two problems here. First, the FBI told the press he was carrying the pornography on a NASA computer which he had stolen. This is stated in numerous press reports. Had this really been the case, he would have been arrested for theft. In reality all the computer equipment was his. Second, the FBI never produced the suspect file. It might have been a Madonna video. Or it may have been in Chinese, which the FBI cannot read. Or it may not have existed at all.
Then the NASA IG investigated. The IG was too embarrassed to reveal that Bo was forced to plead guilty to the obviously trumped-up charge of having erotic literature on his own personal computer and threatened with indefinite imprisonment if he refused, so the report says only that he “plead guilty to a security violation”. The purpose of the IG investigation, however, was not to determine whether a permanent US resident working legally in the US was arrested on the orders of a powerful Congressman because he happened to be Chinese. The purpose of the report was to investigate how NASA could be lax enough to allow an obvious spy (i.e. a permanent US resident of Chinese origin) to work at a NASA-funded research facility.
Welcome to America.
This is the kind of crap our fellow citizens willingly allow, glancing away in the name of security. All since 9/11. They will come after you next.
You don’t understand. In the post 9/11 world, we no longer have to pretend not to be warlike racist xenophobes.