WHO IS GOING TO SPACE AND WILL IT BE A COOPERATIVE EFFORT? - LRK -
U.S. Snubbed China's Offer for Space Cooperation: 'Technology Not Mature': "U.S. Snubbed China's Offer for Space Cooperation: 'Technology Not Mature'
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Staff Writer
posted: 09:30 am ET
28 April 2004"

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL -- Despite joining the elite club of nations to have successfully launched humans into space, China remains an outsider with the United State, reaching out to other spacefaring countries, an expert on Chinese space exploration said Tuesday.

The Chinese National Space Administration was surprised to receive a cold reaction from the U.S. after the successful flight of taikonaut Yang Liwei in October 2003, said Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert on China’s space efforts.

“The Chinese were shocked to find that now that they had a manned space program the U.S. would not work with them,” Johnson-Freese said during the 41st Space Congress underway here. “They were told their ‘technology was not mature.’”

For over a decade, China has fueled its human space flight program to the collective tune of $2.2 billion. That figure comes from Zhou Xiaofei, Manager of the Manned Spaceflight Department within the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Zhou revealed the cost number at an International Space Law Seminar 2004, which opened on Apr 26 in Beijing, and was reported by China's People's Daily Online.
snip