Space station future adrift (Soyuz purchase crisis)

Henry Spencer wrote:
In article , John Doe wrote:


snip

If the yanks can't send money to Russia, perhaps they could get China to
supply the "Soyuz" in exchange for becoming a member of the ISS ?


Distinctly unlikely. Many of the people currently in power in Washington
have gotten there partly by howling with alarm about the Yellow Peril:
how the evil Chinese were stealing US technology and how the traitorous
Democrat scum in the White House and Congress were letting them get away
with it. Serious space cooperation with China would require a major
policy turnaround, and years of effort mending the rather frayed relations
between the two countries. A lifeboat by that route is just not in the
cards right now.


And, on the other side of the equation.. The US is not exactly looking
like a good bet in starting partnerships right now. There is a tradewar
heating up and this would just be another bit of fodder. And, when it
comes to China, until we reach an agreement with them concerning the
exchange rate, don't expect much cooperation between the governments
on governmental projects.

On the technical side...

China seems to know what it wants. I don't see them diverting their
capsule production lines into a production program. They are still
very early in their test phase and they won't likely sign onto anything
that will throw off their planning at this stage. They have the next
5 years locked. It would be very uncharacteristic for them to shift
things around now. Had we cut them in a few years ago when they made
approaches during their initial planning stages, we could do this. But,
that did not happen and they aren't going to move their schedule for the
US.

I suspect a rather loud "No" from China on the question of cooperation
on ISS at this point, if they bother to answer at all.