--- title: Why China Is Still Barred from the Space Station: Childish Politics description: A nonsensical law only increases geopolitical risk canonical: https://time.com/3901419/space-station-no-chinese/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-29T21:48:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:17.260Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The silly reason the Chinese aren't allowed on the space station og:description: Childish politics getting in the way of international cooperation og:url: https://time.com/3901419/space-station-no-chinese/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb103086ca42bdc0/698852493c16393e61458210/chinaspaceprogram.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Welcome home: Nie Haisheng is helped out of his Shenzhou 10 spacecraft after a 15-day mission in 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The silly reason the Chinese aren't allowed on the space station twitter:description: Childish politics getting in the way of international cooperation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfb103086ca42bdc0/698852493c16393e61458210/chinaspaceprogram.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Silly Reason the Chinese Aren't Allowed on the Space Station ## Video: A Year in Space [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ld18D7wM.m3u8) (0:24)  _Published 2015-03-24. On March 28, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly begins a historic year in Space. Time follows Kelly and his twin brother, Mark, as they work the test the boundaries of long-term space travel._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large May 29, 2015 9:48 PM UTC  Welcome home: Nie Haisheng is helped out of his Shenzhou 10 spacecraft after a 15-day mission in 2013. Welcome home: Nie Haisheng is helped out of his Shenzhou 10 spacecraft after a 15-day mission in 2013.AFP/Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large May 29, 2015 9:48 PM UTC Geopolitics can be child’s play—literally. How else would you describe the _did-not! did-too!_ brawl that can result when one country crosses another country’s invisible line in the playroom that is the South China Sea? How else would you describe the G-8 canceling its playdate in Sochi after Russia climbed over the fence to Ukraine’s yard? Something similar is true of the International Space Station (ISS), the biggest, coolest, most excellent tree house there ever was. Principally built and operated by the U.S., the ISS has welcomed aboard [astronauts from 15 different countries](http://www.nasa.gov/mission%5Fpages/station/main/onthestation/facts%5Fand%5Ffigures.html), including such space newbies as South Africa, Brazil, The Netherlands and Malaysia. But China? Nuh-uh. Never has happened, never gonna’ happen. China has been barred from the ISS since 2011, when Congress passed a law prohibiting official American contact with the Chinese space program due to concerns about national security. “National security,” of course, is the lingua franca excuse for any country to do anything it jolly well wants to do even if it has nothing to do with, you know, the security of the nation. But never mind. Few people in the U.S. paid much attention to the no-Chinese law, but it’s at last taking deserved heat, thanks to a [CNN interview](http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/28/asia/china-space-mckenzie/index.html) with the three Chinese astronauts—or taikonauts—who flew China’s Shenzhou 10 mission in 2013\. The network’s visit to China’s usually closed Space City, which will air on May 30, is a reporting coup, especially because of the entirely familiar, entirely un-scary world it reveals: serious taikonauts doing serious work with serious mission planners—every bit what you see behind the scenes at NASA or Russia’s Roscosmos. ### See the Most Beautiful Space Photos of 2014  NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array's first picture of the sun taken in high-energy X-rays released on Dec. 22, 2014. JPL-Caltech/GSFC/NASA  An infrared image of a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula captured by the Hubble telescope released on March 17, 2014. NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team  NGC 4258 is a spiral galaxy well known to astronomers for having two so-called anomalous arms that glow in X-ray, optical and radio light. Chandra X-ray Observatory/CXC/Caltech/NASA  Eta Carinae is one of the most luminous known star systems in our galaxy seen here in this photo released on Aug. 26, 2014. JPL-Caltech/NASA  A reprocessed picture shows off the amazing colors of Europa, a mysterious ice-covered moon of Jupiter, as they have never been seen before released on Nov. 21, 2014. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute  Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo on June 1, 2014 from the International Space Station "A simple toy from my childhood makes for a cool picture in space." Reid Wiseman—NASA  This image of Saturn's rings was taken by a camera on the Cassini spacecraft released on Jan. 21, 2014. JPL-Caltech/NASA/EPA  A long exposure of the European Space Agency's Optical Ground Station at the La Teide Observatory on the Canary Islands, Spain released on April 27, 2014. EPA  An aurora near Australia seen from the International Space Station released on July 15, 2014. NASA  This close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis interacting with the Orion Nebula flow. NASA/Sipa  The Eagle Nebula also known as as Messier 16 or M16, and the 'Pillars of Creation' in the constellation Serpens in May 2014. Adam Block—Mount Lemmon Skycenter  The Russell Crater dunes seen on Mars in this photo released on Feb. 5, 2014. JPL/University of Arizona/NASA  Saturn taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 23, 2013 and released for the first time on Feb. 3, 2014. NASA/JPL/Caltech/Reuters  This vista of the Endeavour Crater rim taken by Opportunity Rover combines several exposures taken by the rover's panoramic camera on April 18, 2014 and was released on May 19, 2014. JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/NASA  Astronaut Alexander Gerst ‏tweeted this photo on July 6, 2014 from the International Space Station "Harsh land. Windswept valleys in northern #Africa / Hartes Land" Alexander Gerst—NASA  The moon over northeast Greenland in March 2014. Michael Studinger—NASA  A crescent moon rises over the cusp of the Earth's atmosphere in this picture by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata onboard the International Space Station on Feb. 1, 2014. NASA/Reuters  An optical image, from the Digitized Sky Survey of the Flame Nebula released on May 7, 2014. DDS/NASA  New Hubble infrared view of the Tarantula Nebula released on Jan. 9, 2014. NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI)—NASA, ESA, E. Sabbi (STScI)  The sun emits a significant solar flare on Dec. 19, 2014 as seen from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO/NASA  Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on July 3, 2014 "Hurricane #Arthur has grown an eye since we last met." Reid Wiseman—NASA  The Elephant's Trunk Nebula, also known as IC 1396 on April 14, 2014. Eric Coles  The Holuhraun lava field as seen with infrared imaging captured by the Operational Land Imager on Sept. 6, 2014, NASA  Mars is seen in an image taken by the ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft released on Sept. 30, 2014. ISRO/AFP/Getty Images  The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-13M space ship carrying the Expedition 40 crew to the International Space Station launches from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on May 29, 2014. Dmitry Lovetsky—AP  Using the CIVA camera on Rosetta’s Philae lander the spacecraft snapped a ‘selfie’ with a passing comet in this photo released on Oct. 14, 2014. Rosetta/Philae/CIVA/ESA  Saturn was captured by the Cassini spacecraft cameras in this image released on March 17, 2014. JPL-Caltech/NASA  A composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 of the evolving universe is shown in this image released on June 3, 2014. NASA/Reuters  Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on July 1, 2014 "Here is a #TodaySunrise from space for @MLauer" Reid Wiseman—NASA And similar to the nature of those other space agencies too is the professed wish of the Chinese crews to work across national borders. “As an astronaut, I have a strong desire to fly with astronauts from other countries,” said Nie Haisheng, the Shenzhou 10 commander. “I also look forward to going to the International Space Station. Space is a family affair; many countries are developing their space programs and China, as a big country, should make our own contributions in this field.” But that contribution can’t happen aboard the ISS. The 2011 law draws a sort of _ex post facto_ justification from a [study](http://origin.www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/USCC%5FChina-Space-Program-Report%5FApril-2012.pdf) that was released in 2012 by the [U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission](http://www.uscc.gov/), warning that China’s policymakers “view space power as one aspect of a broad international competition in comprehensive national strength and science and technology.” More darkly, there is the 2015 report prepared by the University of California, San Diego’s [Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation](http://igcc.ucsd.edu/), ominously titled “[China Dream, Space Dream](http://origin.www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China%20Dream%20Space%20Dream%5FReport.pdf)“, which concludes: “China’s efforts to use its space program to transform itself into a military, economic, and technological power may come at the expense of U.S. leadership and has serious implications for U.S. interests.” OK, deep, cleansing breaths please. On the surface, the studies make a kind of nervous, reflexive sense. China is big, China is assertive, China has made clear its intentions to project its military power in ways it never has before—including to the high ground of space. But if that sounds familiar it’s because it’s an echo of the Cold War hysteria that greeted the launch the Soviet Union’s [Sputnik](http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/). The world’s first satellite, Sputnik was a terrifying, beach ball sized object that orbited the Earth from Oct. 1957 to January 1958, presenting the clear and present danger that at some point it might beep at us as it flew overhead. Every Soviet space feat that followed was one more log on the Cold War fire, one more reason to conclude that we were in a mortal arms and technology race and woe betide us if the guys on the other side got so much as a peek at what we were doing. That argument failed for a lot of reasons. For one thing, the Soviets hardly needed a peek at our tech since they were the ones who were winning. When you’re in first place in your division you don’t to steal ideas from the guys in last. Something similar is true of the Chinese now. After launching their first solo astronaut in 2003, they have followed in rapid succession with two-person and then three-person crews, and have mastered both spacewalking and orbital docking. They have orbited a core module for their own eventual space station, have sent multiple spacecraft to the moon and are planning a Mars rover. They didn’t do all that by filching American tech. The doubters are unappeased, however. Both these reports warn that all of China’s technological know-how, no matter how they acquired it, has multiple uses, and can be put to either good or nefarious ends, a fact that is pretty much true of every, single technological innovation from fire through the Apple Watch. Even if all of the fears were well-founded—even if a Chinese Death Star were under construction at this moment in a mountain lair in Xinjiang—forbidding the kind of international handshaking and cooperating that is made possible by a facility like the ISS is precisely the wrong way to to go about reducing the threat. The joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975 achieved little of technological significance, but it was part of a broader thaw between Moscow and Washington. That mattered, in the same way ping pong diplomacy between the U.S. and China in 1971 was about nothing more than a game—until it was suddenly about much more. Well before the ISS was built and occupied, the shuttle was already flying American crews to Russia’s Mir space station. Russia later became America’s leading partner in operating and building the ISS—a shrewd American move that both offloaded some of the cost of the station and provided work for Russian missile engineers who found themselves idle after the Berlin Wall fell and could easily have sold their services to nuclear nasties like North Korea or Iran. The technology aboard the ISS is not the kind that a Chinese astronaut with ill will would want to or need to steal. And more to the point, if there’s one thing the men and women who fly in space will tell you, it’s that once they get there, terrestrial politics mean nothing at all—the sandbox silliness of politicians who are not relying on the cooperation of a few close crewmates to keep them alive and safe as they race through low Earth orbit. From space, as astronauts like to say, you can’t see borders. 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