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ambitions, which are already being fed by Russian and European technology.
Don't forget the US. Ten years ago they couldn't even get the rockets more than a few hundred feet into the air... now they can target us, thanks LORAL, thanks HUGHES and most of thanks to the Clinton Administration for allowing the technology export (Bubba says thanks for the campaign contributions too)..

Spending 2.4 billion US dollar on a “me-too, white-elephant, 14-round cake walk” space project when half of China’s 800 million rural population is still living below the poverty line and cannot afford to pay for food, education and medical care is a crime. Only 2% of China’s GDP is allocated for education, ranking her behind Uganda. With USD2.4 billion, the ChiCom can at least provide these people with electricity and clean water. The ChiCom is building their political prestige at the expense of her people’s suffering.

How much prestige can this space mission bring is still a big question mark, not to mention its justification. The astronaut Lt. Col. Yang Li-wei is 38 years old. When Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin made the world’s first manned space mission 42 years ago in 1961, this ChiCom national hero Yang Li-wei is still a sperm lurking in his father’s scrotum.

How much prestige can China buy with USD2.4 billion?

1) China has proven that they finally can, with today’s computer technology, duplicate what the USSR did 42 years ago with slide rule and vacuum tube technology.

2) The project has proven that China’s space technology is “ONLY” 42 years (or at least 1.5 generation) behind world standard.

3) China’s astronauts are all trained in Russia. And, most of China’s space technologies are either bought or stolen from Western countries.

If China has this kind of money, the national strength and the so-called advanced technology, the western world should revoke China’s “developing nation” treatment in the WTO agreement that she negotiated so hard for.

The ChiCom’s prime concern is their survival and the continuation of their regime. The space mission is the kind of project that benefits the Party instead of the country and the people.