U.S. must invest to keep ahead of China
in space, hearing told
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[February 21, 2015]
By David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's space
program is catching up with that of the United States and Washington
must invest in military and civilian programs if it is to remain the
world's dominant space power, a congressional hearing heard on
Wednesday.
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Experts speaking to Congress's U.S.-China Economic and Security
Review Commission said China's fast advances in military and
civilian space technology were part of a long-term strategy to shape
the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve
strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific.
They also reflect an enthusiasm for space exploration which in the
United States has faded since the Apollo Program which landed
Americans on the moon in 1969, they said.
"China right now is experiencing its Apollo years," Joan
Johnson-Freese, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, told the
hearing. "China gets the funding its needs."
While the budget of the U.S. space agency NASA has been cut
substantially, China's space program has benefited from its economic
boom and political support from President Xi Jinping down, said
Kevin Pollpeter, a China technology expert at the University of
California-San Diego.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Feb/21/images/ads/current/award_shop_bch_013015.png) "They are also able to program out their activities into five-year
plans and 15-year plans and this gives them a long-range goal to
work with," he told the hearing.
"If the United States is to remain the leading space power then it
must continue to invest in both its civilian and military space
programs."
Dean Cheng, of the Heritage Foundation think tank, said the U.S.
space industrial complex is failing in long-term planning and is
aging compared to China's. It is particularly lacking in Chinese
speakers with the scientific skills needed.
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"China's space industrial workforce is perhaps the youngest of the
space industrial powers," Cheng added. "They will be working at this
for a long time. Innovation at the end of the day does tend to come
from young people."
Xi has said he wants China to establish itself as a space
superpower, but Beijing has insisted its program is for peaceful
purposes.
Fears of a space arms race mounted in 2007 after China blew up one
of its own weather satellites with a ground-based missile.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Christian Plumb)
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