MUNICH — The top European Space Agency official called on Western nations to cooperate with China to develop key space technologies despite the rivalry between the United States and the Communist power.
“I think we should cooperate worldwide,” ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Worner told the Washington Examiner in an exclusive interview. “Isolation, from my personal opinion, is not a good instrument to secure the future.”
Worner’s openhanded posture waved away concerns about the return of a great power rivalry after 30 years of American hegemony since the end of the Cold War. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spent the week leading up to the Munich Security Conference warning Central European leaders against Chinese and Russian encroachment, a call echoed by German leaders at the conference.
“What we really have to do is not be afraid of what can happen but go the exactly the other way,” Worner said. “Look for cooperation, because cooperation is an enabler for technology.”
Chinese telecommunications companies pose a far-reaching threat to the United States and NATO allies, according to U.S. officials. Huawei, one of the largest smartphone companies in the world and a pioneer of next-generation wireless technology, is regarded as a threat that could implant “backdoors” into the telecom networks or surrender sensitive data to intelligence services in Beijing.
“We have a choice between networks based on U.S. satellites or Chinese satellites,” a European official discussing Pompeo’s trip told the Washington Examiner. “Europe is going to have to make a choice because you can’t have both. … It just makes spying so much easier.”
Worner argued that threat can be countered by new technology, such as a hoped-for “fiber in the sky” system of encrypting data and transmitting it to earth via laser. “My life is not developed by fear but by hope and by working together,” he said. “For me, it’s clear that if we open the doors for cooperation then cooperation will happen.”
