Occasional WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Jennifer Chou (who is also the director of Radio Free Asia’s Mandarin Service) writes in with news and links from the Chinese-language media:
On February 7th, the 2007 China Aerospace Exhibition got it’s official kick-off at a much-hyped ceremony and press conference in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. Organized by the China High-Tech Industrialization Association (with the support of the People’s Liberation Army and other branches of the government), the Exhibition itself is scheduled to begin in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in Guangdong provinceon on May 1. Before the exhibition closes in April 2008, it will have made stops not only in Guangdong, but Guangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Shandong, and Hong Kong as well.
The stated purpose of the Exhibition is to “fulfill the State Council’s ‘Action Plan to Promote Scientific Nurturing in all People’ by showcasing the hard-earned accomplishments and heroic feats of China’s aerospace undertaking in order to glorify the spirit of the space age, arouse patriotic fervor, and inspire national self-esteem and cohesiveness.”
The Exhibition will consist of 10 distinct components, including displays on manned space missions, voyages to the moon and mars, rockets, and satellites. Other displays will cover practical applications of aerospace technology and showcase items carried on previous Chinese space missions. Aerospace industry specialists and China’s celebrity astronauts will also be present for simulated launches of the Shenzhou spacecraft.
In the meantime, a nationwide contest for an Exhibition mascot is in full swing. The official announcement states that the mascot should embody patriotism so as to “arouse patriotic fervor and inspire national self-esteem and cohesiveness.” The contest winner will receive $10,000 yuan (U.S. $1290.82) in prize money. Entries are due by April 30th, and may be submitted online to [email protected].
On the very day of the 2007 China Aerospace Exhibition kick-off ceremony, the English edition of People’s Daily Online carried two articles underscoring Beijing’s space ambitions. One asks: “Why Does China Want to Probe the Moon?” The article ends with the declaration that “sooner or later, China’s gorgeous five-star red flag will tower on the moon, and days are not distant for the dream of the Chinese people to come true.”
The second article announced that China plans to build a 4th satellite launching center, this one in Hainan; however, the Financial Times subsequently reported that an official of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense had indicated that final approval for the Hainan base was still undecided.
