Well they do control their media, censor dissident views, censor events that cast the Chinese government in a negative light (search "Tiananmen Square Massacre" or "tank man" on Baidu.com) and imprison their citizens that speak out against their government. China also has a long record of not respecting intellectual property rights, this is one famous example.
<snip>Chinese fear-mongering has been a useful political tool for some time.
Lets all breathe and make sure the conference bill says what we think it says.
So I'm reading up the proposed ITAR reform bill, and I find this hilarious bit within it:QuoteSEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON TRANSFERS TO THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.No satellite or related item ... may be transferred ... to the Government of the People’s Republic of China ...So what would the AMS-2 currently operating on ISS be?LinkQuoteBEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Despite several delays, the AMS-02 particle detector took off from the Florida coast of the United States ...
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON TRANSFERS TO THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.No satellite or related item ... may be transferred ... to the Government of the People’s Republic of China ...
BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) -- Despite several delays, the AMS-02 particle detector took off from the Florida coast of the United States ...
Export Control Reform:Reforms satellite export control by repealing Section 1513(a) of the Strom Thurmond NDAA for FY99, which essentially restores the authority of the President to move satellites and related items from the United States Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. The provisions would prohibit the export, re-export of such items to certain countries and provides for interagency reviews and reporting requirements in order to ensure accountability with respect to the export of satellites and related items. The provisions would maintain the existing security and monitoring provisions of the Strom Thurmond Act.
(Mike) Gold tells a story about how the one-size-fits-all export regulations required Bigelow Aerospace to post guards and pay for government observers to keep tabs on a metal stand for its prototype space habitat sent to Russia for launch in 2007."The stand was simply intended to prevent our spacecraft from sitting on the ground," he said. "If you turned it upside-down, put a tablecloth on it and some nice cutlery, it's indistinguishable from a metal coffee table.""Due to the overbreadth of the regulations, we had to have two guards watching this coffee table on a 24/7 basis in Russia and then pay two government monitors to watch our guards watching the coffee table," Gold said."I can only imagine the national security repercussions of this table technology leaking out from the Russians to the Iranians, where they can learn to serve coffee, or in a worst-case scenario, even tea," he quipped.
This is the kind of common sense reform we fought for so hard. We will continue to fight for these kind of reforms in the future... 2013 is right around the corner. Unless the world implodes in the next 12 hours.Respectfully,Andrew GasserTEA Party in Space
Quote from: Tea Party Space Czar on 12/21/2012 04:01 pmThis is the kind of common sense reform we fought for so hard. We will continue to fight for these kind of reforms in the future... 2013 is right around the corner. Unless the world implodes in the next 12 hours.Respectfully,Andrew GasserTEA Party in SpaceIt looks a great improvement on the current situation. A more level playing field for US suppliers to offer their wares to foreign customers. 1. I presume this will also loosen the situation of foreign nationals at US universities working on space degrees that work on space instruments being able to work on them without hindrance and get jobs with US companies after they graduate. But I'm not counting this one in till that final vote. People seem confident that it's a formality but this situation has persisted for 13 years already. 2. When is the final vote due on this?
1. It will not. The legislation specifically deals with commercial communication satellites. We will have to work to further reform ITAR for areas such as suborbital vehicles and universities. Its an incremental approach and we believe it is the correct approach.
2. Waiting on the President to sign.Respectfully,Andrew GasserTEA Party in Space
I would argue that we achieved as much as was politically possible this year with the ITAR reform we are getting. People simply do not realize how much work it was bring up to speed the staffs, the members, and those who need to agree to reform ITAR.
We have a small staff - four. We are all volunteers who donate time. It does help that I am retired and have an income.
ITAR reform now needs to evolve. Personally, I am thinking suborbital vehicles and the cubesat community. It is still too early to tell where we will go in 2013 - we are still trying to enjoy this win.
People may not like us, and that is ok;
however we now have a track record and a history. When we move on an issue, people know that our work is valid and well sourced.
With Chinese Option Blocked, European-built Satellite To Fly Atop Falcon 9Franco-Italian satellite builder Thales Alenia Space has selected a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket to launch Turkmenistan’s first telecommunications satellite after being blocked by U.S. export rules from shipping the satellite to China for launch, European officials said.The decision, which was expected, signals at least the temporary end of what has become known as Thales Alenia Space’s “ITAR-free” communications satellite design, which has been used in the past decade to launch about a half-dozen Thales-built satellites and satellite electronics payloads aboard Chinese Long March rockets. This hardware was touted as devoid of U.S. components and thus beyond the reach of U.S. export policy, which bars the shipment of U.S. space technology to China.In recent months, even as it has moved to make the International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the U.S. Munitions List less restrictive for satellite components, the U.S. State Department has added to the list certain satellite components previously not covered.<snip>Industry officials have said the State Department’s concerns with the ITAR-free satellite — the department has been conducting an investigation of the satellite’s component lineup since 2008 through what is called a Blue Lantern inquiry — made it likely that, sooner or later, even the most banal U.S. satellite components could be barred from shipment to China.The proposed changes to ITAR and the U.S. Munitions List do not change any of these restrictions as they apply to China.These industry officials said the U.S. position has evolved from one seeking to assure that sensitive U.S. technologies are not exported to China to one that is focused on preventing Western satellite owners and makers from using the Long March rocket.
I think that this will eventually hurt the US more than it helps. Now there's a good incentive to develop those few Us built parts on foreign countries. It will block the Long March for a few years, but force the development of component competition in the rest of the world. The more they block the Chinese, the more they have to develop in house. The more experience and industrial base that they actually develop. Extremely shortsighted.