China146;s leap upward

The irony is stark: headlines across the world focus on China8217;s launch of its first manned flight into space while ours are preoccupied...

The irony is stark: headlines across the world focus on China8217;s launch of its first manned flight into space while ours are preoccupied with the launch of kar sewaks into Ayodhya! China now is ahead of Europe and alongside the United States and Russia as the real space powers. And it is the first developing country to do so. Western observers are keen to point out the similarities of the launch vehicle, Shenzhou-5, the 8216;Heavenly Vessel8217;, the first of which was launched in 1999 soon after America8217;s technological support for the Chinese space launch vehicles was terminated, with the Soviet Soyuz. The reality is that China8217;s indigenous space programme was built up over four decades by Tsien Hsue-Shen, a Chinese who moved over from America in 1955 after he helped the Americans obtain rocket technology and scientists from post-war Germany.

China8217;s 20-year plan clearly aims at transforming it into a 8220;world leader in the field of space science and exploration of outer space8221; by 2020. Its capabilities in space are beginning to eclipse even those of the European Space Agency. Its space programme, like its nuclear programme, expanded from military to civil uses unlike ours. China built up its space launch capabilities on the foundations of its ICBMs and the technology to improve their performance from the US. The manned space flight, therefore, must be seen in the context of integrated civil-military benefits. At the beginning of this year China had 27 foreign-made and 57 indigenous satellites up in space, a large number of them performing military roles. Its short-term plan till 2010 calls for integrated civil-military observation and remote sensing capabilities from space. Establishing independent satellite navigation and positioning system, so critical for military missions, and surveillance capabilities from space are part of that plan. It exports satellite technology to Pakistan, Iran, Thailand, among others.

The launch of 8216;Heavenly Vessel8217; essentially highlights the rather rapid evolution of China as a world power. There is a lesson that we need to learn. We have an extensive and well-developed programme for the exploitation of space. This so far has focused, and rightly so, almost exclusively on developing space capabilities for 8220;national socio-economic objectives8221;. What we need to do is to step up our space programme for peaceful applications with clearly defined goals. In this context, the Chinese example of training 30 million in colleges and technical schools in 1988 through its space assets is instructive. At the same time we need to pay serious attention to the use of space for national defence. A country that is not able to use space for military purposes is bound to have major holes in its defence capabilities.