China astronaut calls for U.S. cooperation

China's most renowned astronaut said on Friday his country and the United
States should make good on their presidents' promises to cooperate in space.

"I think the two countries should proactively implement the intent expressed
in the joint communique to eliminate obstacles and promote exchange and
cooperation in our space programs," Yang Liwei, now the vice director of the
country's Manned Space Engineering Office, said.

Efforts at U.S.-China cooperation in space have failed in the past decade,
stymied by economic, diplomatic and security tensions, despite a 2009
attempt by President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, to
launch collaboration.

Obama and Hu, in a statement in November 2009, called for "the initiation of
a joint dialogue on human spaceflight and space exploration, based on the
principles of transparency, reciprocity and mutual benefit."

U.S. fears over national defense and inadvertent technology transfer have
proven to be major roadblocks, particularly after Beijing carried out an
anti-satellite test in January 2007, using a ground-based missile to destroy
one of its inactive weather satellites.

Yang, considered a hero of China's ambitious space program and the first
from his country to enter space, made the statement during a carefully
controlled media visit to China's astronaut training facility in the western
suburbs of Beijing.

There, journalists were ushered through an echoing hall housing three new
space flight training simulators, none in use by China's 24 astronauts.

But China is pushing forward without the United States, its funding in the
face of NASA scale-backs and its cooperative efforts with Russia and other
countries possibly constituting the next best hope for the future of space
exploration.

Yang noted potential joint space research programs with France and efforts
to launch the Mars probe Firefly 1 with Russia "in the near future."

He said the Chinese government has spent more than 20 billion yuan ($3.1
billion) in the first phase of its space planning, but has no specific
target to put a man on the moon. Chinese scientists have talked about the
possibility after 2020.

Over 13 years, starting in August 1996, China ran up 75 consecutive
successful Long March rocket launches after overcoming technical glitches
with the help of U.S. companies.

In 2003, it became the third country, after the United States and Russia, to
send a man, Yang, into space aboard its own rocket.

China launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang'e-1, in October 2007,
accompanied by a blaze of patriotic propaganda celebrating the country's
technological prowess.

Yang said China's space program was intended to benefit humanity and promote
scientific and cultural developments.

"For myself, I hope to one day set foot on the moon, like the beautiful
Chinese legend of Chang'e," Yang said, referencing the namesake of China's
moon orbiter, a mythical Chinese goddess who was banished to Earth and later
flew to the moon only to regret abandoning her husband.

Yang then gave more down-to-earth reasoning for China's space ambitions.

"Of course, it also has an important value for the nation's image and
prestige," he said.