Wolf Wrong on China – Johnson-Freese
Testimony from the Hearing on China’s Space and Counterspace Programs, SpaceRef
“The Senate U.S. – China Economic and Security Review Commission held a hearing on February 18, 2015 on China’s Space and Counterspace Programs. All of the testimony is now available along with the webcast.”
Johnson-Freese: Why Wolf is Wrong About U.S.-China Space Cooperation, Space Policy Online
“Joan Johnson-Freese explained to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today why former Rep. Frank Wolf was wrong to effectively ban all U.S.-China bilateral space cooperation. Wolf retired at the end of the last Congress, but his successor as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA holds similar views.”
Yeah, rockets and space travel are cool, but it cannot come at any cost.
The problem is that their government is a group of thugs that enslave not only their own people but occupy and oppress other peoples. They engage in malevolent acts against us, the least of which is cyberpiracy. When you lie down with swine, you rise up stinking.
As Amnesty International points out:
China Human Rights
Amnesty International has documented widespread human rights violations in China. An estimated 500,000 people are currently enduring punitive detention without charge or trial, and millions are unable to access the legal system to seek redress for their grievances. Harassment, surveillance, house arrest, and imprisonment of human rights defenders are on the rise, and censorship of the Internet and other media has grown. Repression of minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians, and of Falun Gong practitioners and Christians who practice their religion outside state-sanctioned churches continues. While the recent reinstatement of Supreme People’s Court review of death penalty cases may result in lower numbers of executions, China remains the leading executioner in the world.
Detention Without Trial
The authorities frequently used administrative punishments, including Re-education Through Labor (RTL), to detain people without trial. According to the government, 190,000 people were held in RTL facilities, down from half a million several years ago, although the real figures were likely to be much higher. Former RTL prisoners reported that Falun Gong constituted one of the largest groups of prisoners, and political activists, petitioners and others practicing their religion outside permitted bounds were common targets. The authorities used a variety of illegal forms of detention, including “black jails”, “legal education classes”, “study classes” and mental health institutions to detain thousands of people.
Death Penalty
China continued to make extensive use of the death penalty, including for non-violent crimes. The death sentence continued to be imposed after unfair trials. Statistics on death sentences and executions remained classified as state secrets and, while executions numbered in the thousands, the government did not release actual figures.
Freedom of Expression
As the internet was increasingly used to disseminate news and conduct debates, the authorities tried to control its use by restricting news reporting and shutting down publications and internet sites, including ones that “slandered the country’s political system”, “distorted the history of the Party”, “publicized Falun Gong and other evil cults”, and “incited ethnic splittism”. The government blocked access to content and recorded individuals’ activities through new filtering software such as Blue Shield.
Following the publication of Charter 08 in December 2008, a document calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights, police questioned signatories and put them under surveillance for many months.
Liu Xiaobo, a prominent intellectual and signatory originally detained in December 2008, was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on 25 December for “inciting subversion of state power”. His lawyers were given only 20 minutes to present their case, in a trial that lasted less than three hours.
But disengagement with the world’s next superpower will not be conducive to developing the “common heritage of Mankind.” Vide continuing cooperation with the ‘red menace’ on the ISS. Despite Ukraine. Surely a good thing. Personally I boycott Apple products but I suspect that many worldwide are quite happy to trade, despite the Chinese government’s shortcomings.
John 7:53-8:11 springs to mind.
Extraordinary rendition; Guantanamo; etc.
“world’s next superpower”
Personally, I think there are building inevitable internal centrifugal forces which will tear them apart sooner rather than later.
However, I do believe in engagement. I think it should not be in high tech, and it should be in ways that lessen tensions, like cultural activities, or trade in ordinary goods and services (but that don’t hurt US or Chinese workers or the global enviroment).
I agree we need engagement rather than isolation. But even ordinary goods and services are high tech today. China has survived for thousands of years, I doubt it will disintegrate anytime soon.
It is ok to eat junk food from time to time, as long as your primary food source is healthy. Similarly it is ok to watch “news” on TV as long as you are aware that the nature of such programs is more about entertainment than information.
Self-righteousness and arrogance are two of the most cited reasons that Americans are disliked around the globe, which I attribute to the habit of indulgence in nutrition-less food and misinforming TV programs. Many Americans are seldom shy from making completely uneducated judgments about other people and nations they know little about, regardless of the fact that most of them cannot point out the whereabouts of their own country on a world map.
Let me just quote one simple fact about US and China to illustrate how wrong our conception of the world can be, thanks to the endless brainwashing of our corporate media.
Most Americans believes that our country is a democracy, but our constitution never spell out democracy anywhere, it only says our government is of republic form. The constitution was only ratified by less than 1/6 of the population who happened to voted directly or indirectly. This doesn’t sound really democratic. On the other hand, the current Chinese constitution, which I found was implemented in 1982, clearly states the goal of building a democracy of the highest level. The draft of the constitution was sent out to the whole population to solicit comments for two years before been revised based on these feedbacks. Then the constitution was sent for vote by the People’s congress for approval. The process sounds far more democratic than ours.
The fact is, our country is dictated by special interests in Wall Street, and China is dictated by special interests in Beijing and Shanghai, neither of the two are truly democratic. The difference is, if you ask any Chinese person, he or she is likely to tell you that China sucks even if he has three houses and several Maseratis; but an American would say his/her country is the greatest even though he/she shops at Walmart and drives a Toyota. I believe our media did a good job at forming the public opinion, even that of our enemies’.
The reason that China is catching up with us is not because Walmart, Apple, or cyber spying, but because they are trying to build a society that is very similar to ours in the early 20th century, that people can move ahead as long as they work hard for it – an inclusive society, while we are moving to a society of privileged 1%s.
I understand this is not a place to discuss politics, so I stop here.
“The difference is” you can write whatever the hell you want here in America. Try that in China.
Americans tolerate the 1% because they want to join the club and think they can. That’s why the upper incomes are protected by the working class in America.
There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, the working class will find they cannot join the club, and in fact have not been able to for decades. Wealth begets wealth. Poverty begets poor education, poor health, and more poverty. America has one of the highest child poverty rates in the industrialized world. http://www.npr.org/2014/01/…
That doesn’t mean China has all the answers. But it is never wise to judge other nations without first making the effort to understand them in some depth. If they have made different choices, it does not make us enemies. Most Chinese readily admit they voluntarily accept a relative lack of individual rights in return for political stability and rapid economic development which has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.
The US is still an exceptional construct and there should be no apologies for protecting US interests. Whose intents do you think would do the most harm ?
The most harm will come if conflict between the superpowers cannot be avoided by the development of understanding and rational discourse.
Professor Johnson-Freese is teaching the next generation of
US warfighters that China is OK, be happy ? She does her country a grave disservice.
Everything in the testimony shows us that China is intent on
dominance of not only this planet but space and access to space all the way from LEO to the moon. Nothing in the testimony provides reassurance that it’s OK for he US to collaborate with China.
A story of a nation that will use any means to achieve is goals emerges at every paragraph of the testimony (except for Johnson-Freese’s).
Under no circumstances should the US even consider any form
of collaboration with China. In every case, the US must get off the dime now and establish a space infrastructure capable of not only countering China but fostering US economic, national security and scientific interests.
Space is for the US not withstanding Professor Johnson-Freese’s
“Space for China” attitude.
This is your only disqus post. I hope this isn’t trolling.
But I can still buy most of my stuff at Walmart right???
Not after we blast them with our Battle Lasers from our orbiting Death Stars. (China, that is, not Walmart – now that walmart has just raised its wages from total starvation to general malnutrition levels)
We might want to ask Boeing. China is their biggest export customer. As it is for quite a few American farm products.
I was kidding (of course). I was teasing about another commentors statements about dominating space.. Actually that sounds a bit like 50 Shades of Gray, The Interplanetary Version
There’s a big difference between not wanting to cooperate with a rogue government versus wanting our country to be The Emperor of the Universe. Outer Space is pretty big and there is room for all.
Hey, I can dig the thought of cruising Imperial Star Destroyers sporting the Stars & Stripes.
(versus paying steller-sized tarrifs to the Red Cylons)
That’s what they said about the New World in the early 16th. A century later much had changed.
Did you read the part where they have capabillities to take out LEO infrastructure ? Or the part where by controlling the moon, they can control access to the space beyond – no lunar or Lagrange staging points or depots ?
There should be no apologies for protecting US interests.
All major nations can attack LEO assets. They are indefensible. Our common vulnerability is the only defense. What we do need to do is lessen our dependence on GPS for military assets. Thats a low hanging fruit, as is EMP risk.
And there aint nobody gonna “control” the Moon, or Lpoints.
I’m not sure there is any legal precedent for asserting that space is “for” one nation to the exclusion of all others. Suppose China should decide to devote more resources to human spaceflight than the US does, and consequently develops more extensive human outposts in space. Are you suggesting they should they be prevented from doing so by force? How would such a confrontation advance US interests in either security or prosperity?
Interesting that Bolden got called out by one of the panel participants for not providing any debrief on what he saw, who he talked to and what he talked about during his Chinese junket.
Marco
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Polo
I don’t trust the Chinese government any further than I can throw a Shenzhou capsule, but that’s precisely why I want to keep them close. I think allowing them to participate with us in space activities is a great way to do that. Sure they might learn some things from touring our space facilities or attending briefings, but as if keeping them isolated will slow down their progress or make us any more safe. I think keeping them isolated has possibly even more risk.
I understand the concept of keeping your friends close, but keep your enemies even closer. I just think that they are so far behind technologically (except computers) that we’re doing them a one-way favor when high tech and prestige enterprises are involved.
I would cooperate for things like common docking systems, communication services, etc., as that protects all, but not much more.
China and the US will be the world’s superpowers for the next generation at least. If these nations face each other in a new cold war or military confrontation the damage to the world will be incalculable. If the trust and understanding that can be developed from collaboration in space reduce even slightly the likelihood of a superpower conflict, it will be more than worth the investment. China is America’s largest offshore trading partner, and our largest potential export market. Neither the US nor China can afford to sever these ties. In space, China is one of only three nations with the capacity to launch humans into orbit. It is nonsensical to maintain that the “International Space Station” should not include China.
I have spent some years working with people from China in a variety of venues. I think anyone who characterizes China and the Chinese as a monolithic entity is missing the point. Spend some time with Chinese people, or in China, and you will find as many different points of view as you might find in the US. Then decide what you think of “China”.
I have no problem with the Chinese, but the PRC is another matter. Giving high level aerospace technology to a government which is xenophobic, nationalistic in the extreme, and has no use for Jeffersonian democracy is not naturally selected for behavior. Mr. Darwin would’t approve. Ask anybody working on cyber warfare. If you want to sup with the devil its best to have a long spoon.
There’s a funny thing about xenophobia. It works both ways. China has a long and proud history. If Chinese citizens see things differently from you, they have their reasons. I suggest you learn a little more about them and their country before you jump to conclusions. Churchill was talking about Stalin, not China. when he made that remark about supping with the Devil. Most modern Chinese would like to forget the Korean War. But they learn in school about the Flying Tigers, and know the location of the cemetery that holds the bodies of a few brave American volunteers who died defending China in its greatest time of need.
As for Jeffersonian democracy, remember that believing “all men are created equal” didn’t keep Mr. Jefferson from owning slaves.