In space, the U.S. sees a rival in China

Space exploration is not a political issue, it's for the benefit of all mankind. Japan has been doing some pioneering asteroid exploration themselves. Nobody complained about that.

China's space program in run by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. Does anyone seriously think they are doing it for the "benefit of all mankind"?

On Thursday it landed a space rover on the far side of the moon -- a first by any country -- and plans to build an orbiting space station in the coming decade. In the decade after that, it hopes to put a Chinese "taikonaut" on the moon to make the first moonwalk since 1972.

How does that threaten the U.S though? All of that has been done by the U.S and Russia decades ago. The probe on the far side of the moon is actually something new and interesting, the rest of it has been done and so I fail to see anything to get excited about.

I also don't think the U.S and Russia will simply let the current space station shut down. It would be stupid to do so. If Russia is happy to let their involvement dwindle, which I hope they don't, what is there to stop the U.S asking the Europeans or Japan and even countries like Australia to help maintain and upgrade the existing space station? Nothing. It can certainly be done.

They "think that will motivate the U.S. to go off and do the stuff in space that they want to do," he said. "They see the competition with China as a key to unlocking the political will and money to fund the projects they want to see."

They are probably right. Nothing like a bit of national rivalry to spark innovation. The entire space program is drenched in that rivalry, on all sides. No doubt its a motivation for China, just ask them.

Personally, I think the U.S and Japan should use the Quad as a way of getting India involved in space, in conjunction with the European space program.

lets not kid ourselves, every country that has a space program has a military motive. nobody does this for 'mankind'.

Indeed the Chinese  space program is run and supervised by the "People's Liberation Army of China"! This program is definitely good for mankind! For the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens living in Peoples Republic of China and 5 million Chinese people of many nationalisties of overseas! I want to say we are part of the MANKIND!

I hope some people can understand this rather than absurd jealousy! If USA think her monopoly in space is a race good for mankind, that is totally wrong!

Meanwhile, U.S. dialogue with Beijing is virtually nil

Of course there is NO room for dialogue and there shouldn't be any dialogue is necessary! The Chinese achievement is based on her own efforts instead like America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than a decade that serioudly blocked down any attempt to explore space! I mean America's wars in other countries was her own fault that set back a lot of things including space program! Do you expect the Chinese government should hold on a second until America is back on track and have a dialogue  to find out on how to explore a space program 'Mutually Benefited'??

for my futures sake i started to study Chinese a year or two ago.

Wanna bet now that they've landed on the moon, China will shortly be announcing their revised 12 Dash Line?

Since it's military-run, Chinese space agency doesn't typically share what they obtain in the course of space development

That's why it doesn't really benefit the rest of mankind - they're keeping it to themselves

That's the difference

@lostrune2: The NASA is doing the same thing: Space war! So they were no difference as China, Russia!

@lostrune2: The NASA is doing the same thing

Nope, NASA is not doing the same thing. Many of the NASA advances they allowed the private enterprises to take over. Ex: those wireless tools everybody manufactures now? That's NASA technology - they have to use wireless tools in space.

Furthermore in fact, it's part of NASA's mandate - to share their technologies:

https://partnerships.gsfc.nasa.gov/internal-inventors/disclose-inventions/

"NASA Licenses Patent Portfolio to Achieve Widest Possible Distribution of Technology"

https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2018/10/20/nasa-licenses-patents/id=101945/

There is no Chinese space agency mandate equivalent

Comparing the costs for military and civilian space programs in the USA with only civilian space programs isn't fair.

Space always has a political side. Always. Even just the National pride aspects are part of all space related activities. Just think of all the data that NASA and NOAA space platforms and science has provided to the world over the decades. The raw data from NASA programs is often available to researchers around the world.

China has a civilian space program and seeks partners from around the world. Many of their existing partners are also partners with the USA. This means that NASA does have some knowledge access to the Chinese data from those partner teams.

The US lawmakers deemed that working with China in space was too much of a liability. It is illegal for NASA to work with Chinese on space projects since 2011. Really, it should have been illegal since the 1990s when China stole Loral space technology.

https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-china-collaboration-illegal-2015-10