China launched its first manned flight in 2003, joining Russia and the United States as the only countries to launch humans into orbit and generating huge amounts of national pride for the Communist government.
lol, and ofc, Europe has never sent any man on the international space station ? 
Unless they mean the transportation in itself ?
They do mean the transportation itself. The act of launching, not sending someone to space.
So, the most populace country in the world did something the Russians have been doing near continuously since the 1970s and something a few private US companies should exceed in the next 5 years.
Well done China, excellent demonstration of their capability to copy 1970s Soviet technology.
Well, its not so surprising. A lot of countries are still unable to create even basic nuclear technologies (the majority of them actually), so... I dont think other advanced techs like rocket technology and expertise is something to be taken for granted, at the contrary.
My point is that the Chinese copy others, extensively and without remorse. As an example, would you ever consider
not filing patents as a way to protect technology?
China has the resources to pursue a space program (and many other "superpower" programs). A lot of countries simply do not have those kinds of resources and either have to join a conglomerate (Europe being the best example for a lot of these) or partner with a larger nation.
China applied repeatedly to join the space station, but was rebuffed largely on objections from the U.S., prompting it to adopt a go-it-alone strategy.
Thats the dumbest thing I have ever heard in terms of geopolitics. Instead of welcoming them in the international space program, thus creating bonds and actually making them use the international technology instead of their own, they tell them to fuck off and go for themselves, so they have nothing to report to anyone... Best way to emulate strong anti international feelings and a national pride, especially when they will be able to equate or even do better than everything we are able to do. And then we will be like "Hey pwease, can you share pwease ?", and they will laugh so hard at our stupidity.
Well done, U.S.
The United States and Europe largely paid for the ISS, including not insignificant portions of the the Russian part. In the 1990s, the program was seen as a way to keep the former-Soviet technical experts busy and employed and avoid them running off to various countries interested in purchasing their expertise in order to build a ballistic missile program.
There was a lot that went into the decisions to not allow China to participate. China is not interested in helping others, but only improving their own position. Regardless of how the US helps China, the Chinese are not likely to be willing to share in the future anyway, unless it helps China and hurts the US. Internationalism is great, when everyone believes you can pursue Win-Win solutions to problems, but many countries do not believe Win-Win solutions exist and view everything as a Zero-Sum game.
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Topic: Welcome our new Chinese overlords (Read 2163 times)