On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 04:07:38 GMT, "James Oberg"
wrote, in part:

Fears about China in space should not sidetrack people. This isn't the Cold
War of U.S.-Soviet confrontation, so a new high-budget "space race" isn't in
the cards. China is not racing us to establish a manned military station on
the moon. Nor is it assembling an orbiting battle fleet to neutralize
American space-based military tools. To imagine such threats is to fear
shadows. To respond as if they were real would be folly.

China is not a democracy.

It doesn't have a free press or free elections.

The Chinese people don't have the right of free assembly or the free
exercise of religion.

It is entirely appropriate to react with fear (or perhaps more
accurately trepidation, or a non-emotional recognition of the presence
of a potential threat) whenever any non-democratic country is found in
possession of any technology more advanced than bows and arrows. Of
course, we hardly needed China's launch of a manned space rocket to
cause us fear on that account, and you are indeed correct that in
_itself_ the peaceful exploration of space is not too frightening.

However, it wasn't too long ago that people were saying that Chinese
nuclear missiles "might" be able to reach the extreme East and West
coasts of the U.S.; obviously, if you can launch an orbital satellite
of any kind, you can reach any part of the earth with an ICBM... just
as Sputnik told us about the Russians.

John Savard
http://home.ecn.ab.ca/~jsavard/index.html