China's Tribulations in Space

Why would China export Rare Earths to America after being treated like this?

This is free guest post, by Starboy. Feel free to circulate it.

In 1994, China applied to join the International Space Station, but was declared ‘untrustworthy’ by the U.S.A. Then things went downhill:

• 1993. The United States shut down their GPS targeting the Chinese container ship Yinhe, leaving the ship stranded at sea and unable to navigate for 33 days - after being falsely accused by the US of carrying chemical weapons precursors to Iran

• 1996. The United States turned off its GPS in the South China Sea, forcing China's missile tracking to fail

• 2003. China applied to join the EU's Galileo global satellite navigation system, paid €230 million but was eventually forced out by the EU

• 2011. The United States Wolf Amendment Law prohibited NASA from cooperating with China in space. Despite being stigmatized and isolated, Chinese scientists and taikonauts remained determined and worked hard to become self-sufficient

• 1999. Shenzhou 1, China's first spacecraft - where the dream began!

• 2000. The first experimental BeiDou Navigation Satellite was launched

• 2003. Shenzhou 5. China's dream of flying into Space came true! Taikonaut Yang Liwei (杨利伟) was blasted successfully into space as part of China's Shenzhou 5 mission. China became the third country to launch a person into space independently, after the Soviet Union and the United States

• 2005. Shenzhou 6. Fèi Jùnlóng (费俊龙) and Niè Hǎishèng (聂海胜) launched into space aboard the Long March 2F carrier rocket. It marked the official second launch of China's manned spaceflight program and the start of crewed scientific research in space

• 2007. The first lunar exploration probe Chang'e 1, part of the first phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, was launched and successfully orbited the moon, marking the third milestone in China's space program

• 2007. The BeiDou-1 navigation system was completed and began operation in China. The fourth positioning system, next to the American GPS, Russian GLONASS, and European Galileo

• 2008. Shenzhou 7. Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang (翟志刚) and Liu Boming (刘伯明) completed China's first "Spacewalk" extra-vehicular activity (EVA) 2011 - The Tiangong-1 prototype space station was launched, marking the start of construction on China's first space station

• 2016. Tiangong-2, China's first space laboratory launched. Tiangong-2 was not constructed or planned to be permanent, but rather as a test-bed for critical technologies utilized for the final Tiangong Space station

• 2020. Chang'e 5 marks China's first lunar landing retrieving lunar soil. For the first time in 44 years, humans have brought back rock and soil samples from the moon

• 2020. China's BeiDou-3 navigation system provides complete full global coverage

• 2020. Mars, here we come! China launched Tianwen-1, China's first Mars probe

• 2022. China completed construction of its permanently crewed Tiangong space station

• 2024. Chang'e 6 mission: China became the first nation to land and return lunar soil samples from the far side of the moon It took China 28 years and the sacrifice of countless heroes risking their lives working day and night to overcome China's Western-imposed isolation and construct its own space station and global navigation system, and to become a leader in space exploration. With thanks to Starboy.