Special: China -Russia relations hinder China and international aerospace cooperation?

China ’s aerospace development has quickly completed the“ three steps ”within 30 years, but the intense geopolitical situation has slowed down the pace of international cooperation in Chinese aerospace.Interviewed scholars analyze that international aerospace cooperation will help establish the image of Chinese scientific and technological leaders, but the close relationship between China and Russia may become a hindrance to cooperation between countries and Chinese aerospace.

After the "Tiangong" was formed at the end of last year, China has welcomed many times in other countries' spacemen entering the Chinese space station to conduct experiments.Xinhua News Agency reported in February this year that China will start to select international astronauts and use Chinese spacecraft on space to jointly carry out scientific experiments and other work. Many countries have proposed flight demand; but the report has not stated that some countries have proposed that some countries have proposedApply.

A spokesperson for China Manned Aerospace Engineering and Deputy Director of the Engineering Office, Lin Xiqiang on Monday (May 29) at the Lianhe Morning News Relative: China is actively carrying out the relevant questions at the Lianhe Morning Post.Preparation and "very much look forward to and welcome foreign astronauts to participate in the flight mission of China space station"; but he did not put forward a clear target date on foreign astronauts entering China Space Station.

In 2011, the U.S. Congress stopped the Wolf clause of Sino -US space cooperation to prohibit the reception of Chinese official visitors from the United States Aerospace.After the United States clearly refused China outside the door of the International Space Station, China accelerated its independent innovation in the aerospace field, and the competition in the field of China and the United States quickly heated up.

At the end of 2022, China completed the existing second space station in space- "Tiangong", which achieved the three -step target set in 1992, and officially entered the stage of application and development for more than 10 years.

While developing its own aerospace technology, it also actively promotes cooperation with foreign aerospace to seek breakthroughs in the United States; this trend is particularly obvious after 2018.In the five -year 2021 Chinese aerospace white paper, the word "international" appeared more than 60 times.The White Paper states that from 2016 to 2021, China and 19 countries and regions and four international organizations signed 46 spatial cooperation agreements or memorandums of understanding; the main tasks in China in the next five years are to further enhance the international community's understanding of China's space industry.

Michelle Hanlon, co -director of the University of Mississippi University of Aeronautics and Aerospace Law, said in an interview with Lianhe Morning Post that the Outr Space Treaty signed by countries in 1967 has emphasized international space cooperation and stated that space exploration and space exploration andDevelopment must be based on the interests of all countries.From a political level, cooperation with many countries is good for China, because there are many loopholes in the outer space treaty, such as it does not standardize the use of space resources such as space mining.When the international community has successively filled these rules loopholes, the more political partners in the space field have, the more likely it is to be accepted by countries its explanation of the law.

Scholars of interviewees also believe that aerospace development is one of the important ways for China's establishment of soft power.Against the background of the Sino -US science and technology war, Harvard -Schmusong Celestial Physics Scholars Jonathan McDowell pointed out that aerospace development can help establish a role of "scientific and technological leaders" for China.

European countries with advanced aerospace technology are partners in China.The European Space Administration signed a cooperation agreement with the China Space Administration in 2015 to agree that the two parties would send spacemen to participate in training. The goal was to let the European astronauts on the China Space Station starting from 2022.In 2017, Germany and Italy sent astronauts to Yantai for training.

However, with the past five years in the past five years, the spiral decline in the past five years, and the Russian and Ukraine War caused European relations with China and Russia to increase the alert, the European Space Administration has stated earlier this year that European astronauts will not be sent to China to China.Tiangong Space Station.

Roger Handberg, an expert at the University of Central Florida, believes that the exit of the European Space Administration is a short -term setback for Chinese aerospace development;Cooperate with China.

Russia is an important space partner in China for decades. In 2021, the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding of the cooperation construction of the International Moon Scientific Research Station and launched cooperation in the International Moon Research Station.In April this year, China also invited Venezuela to participate in the China -Russia International Moon Research Station project.

Handberg pointed out that according to the trend of the Russian and Ukraine War, Sino -Russian aerospace cooperation may become controversial issues.For China, it has become unknown whether Russia can continue to become powerful space partners; China -Russia partnership may also be a consideration for considerations for countries to seek aerospace cooperation with China.

China Aerospace Cooperation focuses on turning to the Middle East, Africa and other places

At present, China has shifted the perspective of aerospace technology cooperation to the Middle East, Africa and South America.Chinese officials last December at the first China -Bay Arab National Cooperation Commission Summit showed that China is willing to cooperate with the sea in the fields of remote sensing and communications satellites, space applications, aerospace infrastructure, and aerospace selection training.

In January of this year, the three parties of the Hong Kong Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the Gillar Republic Government and Dazhi Road International Holdings Group also signed a memorandum of understanding, agreed to cooperate and build an international commercial space port in the Obak area of the Djibati Republic.

China's aerospace development has now followed the United States and reached the second level in the world.McDore believes that aerospace cooperation between China, the Middle East, Africa and other places does not have much promoting China's own aerospace development, but it will help promote the development of aerospace in other countries.This means that China can obtain political interests, and these countries will naturally look at China in other aspects of scientific and technological development.

Hanlun's judgment that the new round of space competition after the Cold War has begun, and China has seen the opportunity to catch up and even surpass the United States in the space field.China will continue to promote aerospace cooperation with countries that are less developed with technology, which shows that they are in an equal position with the United States in the aerospace field.

Handberg predicts that China Space Station will usher in foreign astronauts within 10 years.But the problem faced by China is to support the relatively underdeveloped national aerospace officers to the China Space Station. Whether the resources and energy they pay are worth it.