The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted a transcript of a press conference Tuesday with ministry spokesman Qin Gang. One of the reporters at the press conference asked about NASA administrator Mike Griffin’s upcoming trip to China:
Q: The Administrator of NASA will visit China next week. Please brief on his agenda. What does China expect out of the visit? Will the visit promote cooperation between China and the US in air space?
A: The peaceful use of outer space is the common cause of all mankind. China is ready to conduct cooperation in outer space with other countries including the US on this basis. China hopes the space authorities of the two countries can establish friendly and stable relations of cooperation, and explore the possibility of cooperation in space science, application and other fields. I am not aware of the specifics of this visit. I will see if I can get you some information from relevant authorities.
As you can see, the visit is not very high up on Mr. Qin’s radar (although, to be fair, I am sure he and his superiors are more preoccupied with the current visit of US Treasury Secretary Paulson, which was addressed in the second half of the question from the same reporter.)
Why should China treat Griffin’s visit as a high profile one? Griffin doesn’t. Their boiler plate response on peaceful uses to the contrary, their entire space program is run by their own military. We all know that militaries are devoted to peace in all their endevors.