INTERNATIONAL CONTACT

A key feature affecting the quality and outcome of any space program is its international links and they should be considered an important adjunct to the domestic infrastructure. From 1956 to 1977, with the exception of the brief period of the Sino-Soviet accord (1956-60), China developed its space program relying almost entirely on its indigenous resources. During the period of rectification and reconstruction, Deng Xiaoping led a policy of openness and cooperation. A series of exchange visits and meetings kick-started the process in 1977-79, with Japan and the United States, and collectively and individually with the members of the European Space Agency. China’s first international agreement was with France. The protocol agreed between the two countries covered cooperation in the areas of communications satellites and the surveying of natural resources, launchers, and balloons. The Chinese were invited to watch the launch of an Ariane rocket. An agreement with Italy shortly afterwards involved the use by the Chinese of an Italian communications satellite called Sirio, which was moved from its normal position in geosynchronous orbit (15°W) to 65°E to test out ground stations in anticipation of China’s first comsat. A memorandum was then signed with the European Space Agency as a whole in 1986, supplemented by bilateral agreements with many of its individual members.

In the course of time, links were built up with over 40 countries, taking in a broader range of countries such as India, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and Ukraine. The standard procedure was for the first contacts to lead to bilateral visits, the exchange of minutes of meetings, followed by a protocol for cooperation initialed by the two governments. The most intense cooperation has been with Russia, which, in the 1990s, established a bilateral commission meeting alternately in Moscow and Beijing, with 21 cooperation areas and eight priority themes, extended to cover manned spaceflight. A second agreement was signed in November 2005 to run from 2007 to 2016 and was extended to cover interplanetary missions. Joint projects have been undertaken with Europe (Dragon (see Chapter 6) and Doublestar (see Chapter 7)) and Brazil (CBERS (see Chapter 6)). Of concern to some Western countries, though, has been Chinese missile, rather than space, cooperation with North Korea and Iran, where there are reports of a murky circle of supplies of parts and equipment [7].

Cooperation with the United States has had – and continues to have – many ups and downs (Chapter 5), but scientific cooperation has been more stable. The Chinese signed an exchange agreement with the United States in 1978 and an Understanding on Cooperation in Space Technology in 1979. A Joint Commission on Scientific and Technological Cooperation was meeting by 1980 and working groups were set up. Later, two small Chinese student chemical and materials experiments flew on board the Space Shuttle (mission STS-42) in January 1992. A Chinese alpha magnetic spectrometer flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission to the Mir space station in June 1998. Two Chinese universities – Southeastern in Nanjing and Jiaotong in Shanghai – later participated through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, flown up to the International Space Station in 2011.

Following the opening developed by Deng Xiaoping, China joined the principal range of international space-related organizations: the International Astronautical Federation, the International Telecommunications Union, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), International Maritime Satellite Association, INMARSAT, COSPAR, the International Telecommunica­tions Union (which allocates frequencies for comsats), and the International Organization for Standardization. China signed the main international outer space treaties of the United Nations – those for the exploration and use of outer space, the return of stranded astronauts, responsibihty for damage caused by space objects, and the registration of objects launched into space. China joined the COSPAS/SARSAT international satellite-based sea and land distress and rescue system: this uses American and Russian satellites to relay distress calls from ships foundering at sea (most famously to rescue stranded yachtsmen).

Perhaps the moment which marked the end of China’s coming of age in the international space community was the 47th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), held in Beijing in October 1996. Attended by 2,000 domestic and over 1,000 foreign delegates, the congress was opened by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and hosted by Prime Minister Li Peng. The Chinese put their space industry on show, brought Westerners around Chinese space facilities, unveiled plans for their own space future, and appealed for greater international cooperation between China and its international partners (the International Astronautical Federation announced a return to Beijing in 2013). In September 2001, China welcomed 300 delegates from 20 countries to the 6th Asia-Pacific Conference on Space Cooperation and its secretariat was established in China.