In this week’s issue of The Space Review I have an article about the CSIS forum on US-China space cooperation last week that I briefly summarized here. There’s some more details on how Congress views China and its space program, but also on cooperation in general. One interesting insight from the forum is that while there has been considerable discussion on the fact that other countries have been cooperating with China on space issues, there’s less discussion about what each side really has to gain from such cooperation. “What struck me the most is that there is a lot of talk about it would be in the US interest to cooperate with China, but that’s kind of where it ends,” Rep. Rick Larsen said. “To have our potential competitor or potential partner say it’s in our interest doesn’t mean it’s in our interest, and we need to do a better job of defining our own interests.” That would seem to be a major hurdle for any long-term significant cooperation between the two countries.
