Lawmakers Blame Obama for Chinese Space Advancements
From .globalsecuritynewswire.org-
Republican lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of abetting China’s space program through its allowance of “dangerous” technology export deals, Agence France-Presse reported on Friday (see GSN, March 10).
Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) at a Capitol Hill hearing last week charged that an illegal “overreach” by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy was causing a looming national security danger in the form of Chinese advancements in outer space.
“China has aggressively sought our technologies through legal and illegal methods for decades,” said Rohrabacher, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said at the hearing he was “very troubled with this administration’s apparent eagerness to work with China on its space program and willingness to share other sensitive technologies…”
…OSTP head John Holdren told the House subcommittee he had been notified by the Justice Department that his office’s initiatives were covered by the White House’s executive prerogative to carry out foreign policy and thus superseded the congressional requirement on the permitted uses of federal funds.
“I certainly don’t dispute technology transfer to China that we did not wish and do not welcome,” Holdren said in a reference to suspected leaks by private companies conducting commerce with China.
But he backed the scientific collaboration pursued over multiple U.S. administrations, contending it aided in getting “China to change the aspects of its conduct that we oppose,” including human rights violations.
Don’t ya just miss the days of the cold war when things like this would end up with NASA getting more money to plan a joint space trip with the USSR? You can’t run from space. You can’t block it. Even if you don’t want to, you might as well plan the next high-level PR trip to shake hands in space and act like everything is cool. 
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We blame the Chinese because we don’t have a viable space program. Sounds like a typical Congressional reaction.
So China has now demonstrated space flight experience at a level we gained with Gemini in the 1960s, and now Congress is trying to push a panic button?
Maybe they ought to take a long look again at the budget they approve for NASA and begin considering to increase it, if they’re so worried.
It’s a nice safe way of demonstrating your anti-Communist credentials — which matters IMMENSELY to some voters — while not impacting serious economic or foreign policy issues. I.e., grandstanding.
What’s amusing here is that Rohrabacher is one of the grandstandees. Elsewhere, he’s much acclaimed alt.spacers as The Only Sane Republican for his embrace of Obama’s commercial crew and cargo program.
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