China's space programme

Shooting the moon

After a successful Olympics, China’s next spectacular

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Readers' comments



Steve From CHINA

Why cannot Chian develop space technology?Don't criticize everything that China have done.
Your criticism shows that you fear China would a strong country and you are scared.
As far as I know,China is a peaceful country and Chinese people love peace.


Hey east wind,Do you reckon we have 假中國人呢, or 偽善真洋人here sometimes? The world has really changed, am amused somebody enjoys playing this, making saucy posts to stir the pot. Real Chinese no need to 不断轉換筆名 to disguise as Chinese. How interesting I think it is pathetic to do this. Believe or not, there are hints –they used to write ‘just’ few sentences, emphasising they are ‘young’ Chinese, or misspelt Chinese as chineese, or few words, or using the funny phrase like female dogs, to make people here to think... first, they don’t understand much English, so as to show they are Chinese, secondly, abusive comments , to show they are uncivilised, so as to stir the pot. But the most obvious, no concrete things provided in content, no data, no sources, not historic issues, no trace of their previous posts to any other topics, usually put just one post related China, no further discussion, no details of their claims. I identified them every time when there is China topic-in this shooting the moon, there are more than would know who they are just click on their pen names, and it is easy to single them from the real posters with opinions. I would say I have learned from many posters (like you, Daveycool, P_Summers, ricecake, the longestway...etc, we already know a bit of each others’ style, the discussions here are enjoyable to me, no matter we agree with each others’ view/opinion, the exchange have brought ideas, thus have purposes. Regarding the disguises (it could be the same person, but have different pen names-they are there just to stir up ‘hatred’, you can easily identify them, so you won’t waste your time to reply.


I think it's very disappointing that this great achievement is marred by the food scandals, first the milk then the sweets...It kind of draws back the reality that China is still a developing country with much work to do in terms of infrastructure and policy implementation, despite the strong image that it projects.And what was that about 'Taiwan First, then Mars'?


It's so amazing that you really understand our concern.
Acturally, most Chinese are very sofisticated. We don't hate American people. But we really dislike the hawks in American government. They are the policy makers and they engage the whole world in a vicious circle of arm race. This is not what No.1 is supposed to do. No.1 should be a parent and a judge among his children. Force should only be used when conflict occurs among children. That was also what China used to do during its golden age.



Before we give comment on other countries, we should examine ours. Be objective, be human and try to understand each other.

I quote what I said in my previous post.

Be objective. The resources in this planet is not sufficient for every human being to share. Thus, interest is always the key among different countries. Conflict or war would still exist even if there is only democracy in this world.

Be human. Try to share the feeling of each other. Read some history of China. If you were once bullied by others, you would cherish and worship military power much more than before. This is human nature. Consider hundreds of thousands of victims and their families in Iraq. Guess what they are thinking about right now. Still, the leaders of "authoritarian" countries like Iran, Syria, North korea, Venezuela，Cuba, and us China.America really set a bad example. It is America, the biggest democratic country, that sends its troop worldwide and uses bombs to teach others. And it is still America who opened Pandora's box and engage us in this vicious cirlce of arm race. Every country is the potential enemy of another. But it is obvious that America is the biggest possibility.


Just because China is doing something that others have done before doesn't make it frivolous. Have the Americans or the Russians shared their technology with everyone? India and Japan are going after space technology as well, would the same guys frowning upon China's recent forays into space please just criticize the Indians and Japanese preemptively?I just don't understand why it's a bad thing if a country tries to upgrade its technology. What is so wrong?By the way, I think that the Cold War played out relatively peacefully if you think about what would have happened if the USSR had primacy. Would the United States have survived? Arms races are sometimes a bit dangerous but the competition accelerates research and development of new technologies. A space race should be far less dangerous but would benefit all humankind.I just don't see why space tech is so good if it's only the West doing it but it's suddenly very bad if China does it.

Mr. Andrew

Why should China challenge the First? (the USA) Why shouldn't China do like the rest of the world (EU, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, etc...) Cooperating with the First?It is so nice to be in peace and be everybody friend of each other! Why should china fight/challenge on whatever field?


Any country that thinks it can go for being number one should try to. Imagine if someone told America to stop. Luckily for us, America never stopped. Yankee ingenuity brought us the airplane, computers, and we wouldn't be discussing important matters on the Internet if America just sat back and mellowed out.Japan failed to become number one but in the process of trying brought benefits to the World. They improved the VCR, faxmachines, TV, higher quality cars, the CD and DVD -- only the latter two were actual Japanese inventions by the way, I don't hear people complaining that Japan never did original things. Japan copied the vast majority of things that it is currently identified with. During that quest to be number one, America had a few unkind words for Japan but so what? japan trudged ahead anyways.To tell China that going for the top is a shameful "face" thing is just ridiculous. Would you tell your child to settle for "good enough"? That poor child's full potential would never be realized. China must go for number one and must keep trying. The economic benefits will follow, guaranteed. Besides the human potential of 1.3 billion people is a terrible thing to waste. If America is only 5% of the world population and still has achieved so much, can you imagine four times the potential benefit? I cannot fathom the idea of telling a fifth of the World, that China represents, that their efforts to attain the top is just a "face" thing. What rubbish!


No one has put it better than Chairman Mao, "we support whatever our enemy oppose, and we oppose whatever our enemy support".

Will Lee

very well ,
I can't agree more.
As it know to all,chinese is a great people,is a frendly people,is a kind people.If you had gone to china at once.You will never fail to see the beautiful heart of common chinese(besides special evil). I proud of being China.If you don't\did't experient that,well,shut up!Hold your tongue!
However,welcome to china. Better later than never.


One more point to add.
Space research is not a mission only for is of strategic importance although it incurs contraversy from other countries.
We Chinese have become more sensible and realistic. Any waste of money woule be criticized by public.


I do wonder what purpose do these billion dollar projects serve? Especially when countries like china and india which has millions of people who dont have even access to clean water,spend their money on these "cool" achievements!


Hey the longestway, would you be kind enough to write the Chinese name of Hou Yi? for me, I like the story, so romantic, I have heard the story regarding the mooncake...please don't shoot the moon...


China must review its defense posture to ensure that it isn't doing anything that can be misinterpreted as provocative. I do not know if Diayutai or Senkaku for example really sits on a large pool of oil as some think. Perhaps co-operation with the Japanese would be prudent. On the other hand I do not understand the issue enough regarding this island.

China must also cajole North Korea into giving up its nuclear ambitions. True, North Korea's desire to have a nuclear arsenal can be attributed to the (bewildering) branding of it as one of the Axis of Evil nations in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, it is nevertheless good for China to remove another excuse for Japan to throw away its pacifist constitution and generally good for the region.

Ironically, Taiwan's best chance for peace is never to declare independence. I have always thought that it was insane for Taiwan to want anything other than closer ties with the Mainland. True, there's the problem of freedom that seems incompatible with the Mainland but Beijing had offered Taiwan very nearly everything, even keeping Taiwan's own military. It's not difficult to think that the democracy that Taiwan enjoys can continue. It's a little regretful thinking about how much Taiwan has squandered since the early '90s with regards to its relationship with the Mainland. Taiwan can actually change the Mainland if only it took the chance.


Your comments are always objective.
Before we give comment on other countries, we should examine ours. Be objective, be human and try to understand each other.Bias can only mess up the matter.
As I said, China with its huge population is sure to be a great country. This is fate, not face. A country with 1.3 billion should play its role and make its contribution to the mankind.


East Wind,The Manhattan Project was one that is considered to be a nett positive for PR. There is a few others that were done in secret that were shamefully wrong -- one that comes to mind is the Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment. Americans of African decent (real Americans! real humans!) infected with syphilis were experimented on from the years between 1932 to 1972 -- 40 years! Doctors never intended to treat these men, they were told to observe what syphilis would do to humans -- at least they considered these African-Americans humans... ironic!When a whistle-blower broke the news the Public Health Service sounded unrepentant. PHS stated that the sick men were always happy to see doctors, and had been volunteers (to which representation of the "treatment"?) etc.I'm not saying that just because America has done it China can do it too. What I'm saying is why does China get the suspicion when America doesn't?I am reminded of the badly mistaken idea of racial profiling in crime-fighting. When the police assumed that African-Americans were generally more likely to commit crimes, the entire race got more scrutiny. Naturally, the police would catch more criminals who were of African decent even though whites may just have the same tendency to commit crimes -- the resources were concentrated in that direction. The white criminals got away with it more often than the African ones. This reinforces the "statistic" that African-Americans commit more crimes than white-AmericansThe whole sad thing has a major impact on other aspects of life in the African-American community. The African-American community, in general, trust the police a lot less, banks lend them less money, employers tend to mistrust them, even school teachers have an unconscious tendency to treat the African-American children as having a higher propensity to do wrong and they get more desperate because of very diminished opportunities, etc. All because of racial profiling.China gets this kind of attention on a national level, I think.


"A lot of them are graduate from US top school who *should be* leading a elitist life in US. Of course life in the spacing city is not poor(enjoyable in some prospect), but coming to this another world itself is a great devote"-thanks to let us know T1t0n, China will have a bright future because of these devoted people.


Am I supposed to talk on topic? I forgot..hahaI know for sure that Chinese space tech is decades behind U.S.'s. I know that U.S. would not sell, not to mention give, tech to us. And I know even if Chinese have developed such high level technology, U.S. can easily made it avalible to every human, with no charge, or maybe the photocopying expence.The only way out is to do research on our own, probably with tiny help from Russia or E.U., but after all it is Chinese scientists who contribute 99%.Thanks those technologists, scientists ,soliders , taikonauts(astronauts) and ordinary workers who devoted their whole prime time working in the middle of a huge desert. A lot of them are graduate from US top school who *should be* leading a elitist life in US. Of course life in the spacing city is not poor(enjoyable in some prospect), but coming to this another world itself is a great devote.


How Obama, a black, gets to become a presidential candidate in the one of the racist countries in the world, as the chinese posters have suggested, will remain a mystery to us forever. Obviously in China there is no racial issues and Chinese love the Africans, except those who attend the universities there. Also google and read what the South African Labour minster said about Chinese employers' abuse of African workers in South Africa recently. He sounded like a racist criticizing fellow racists. Get off your high horse, people.



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