Washington DC – May 22, 1998 – Should President Bill Clinton actually get to visit Beijing next month after all, political sources in Washington tell SpaceCast writers that he will make yet another attempt to use access to U.S. space technology to get China to join the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a proliferation control protocol that the Communist nation has refused to sign.
The source reports that among the space technology exchanges and joint projects being proposed by the White House is allowing China to join the International Space Station project in a sub-member capacity. ‘This would be a great way to have China become part of the major space effort of the 21st century,” the source says. But the recent flap over political campaign contributions from the Chinese military to Clinton’s 1996 reelection effort, and yesterday’s restrictions on selling China any space technology, passed by the House, seem to doom any renewed Clinton effort to get China into the U.S. Space Program.
The issue of China and the Space Station has been a political hot potato
in Washington for years. At one point in 1995, when China was feeling out
the administration on new space ventures, NASA officials at the Paris Air
Show were forbid to even discuss the ramifications of the prospect.
The interesting part of this historical fact was that China, at one point, was suggesting use of the Long March rockets for logistics support of the
station – the same rocket family now subject to Congressional investigations
concerning the use of U.S. expertise to refine the vehicle’s performance
following their 1996 launch failures.
