Space

DATE=01/29/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=CHINA SPACE PROGRAM

NUMBER=5-53057

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China says it will launch its first astronauts into space later

this year. Beijing is hoping the manned space program will boost

commerce, science, and security. But, as V-O-A's Jim Randle reports,

those benefits come at a price.

TEXT:

/// SFX:count down in Chinese, followed by rocket ROARRRRR,

ESTABLISH & FADE ///

Late in December, China launched the un-manned Shenzhou Four (prono:

shen-JOE) space capsule, which officials say was a "dress rehearsal" for

a manned space mission later this year, perhaps as early as October.

China has trained 14 of its top fighter pilots to be astronauts. A

successful flight by one of them would make China the third nation in

the world to independently send humans into space, after the United

States and the former Soviet Union.

While Beijing started its manned space program long after the Russians

and Americans, author and former U-S space agency engineer Jim Oberg

says China will quickly catch up.

/// OBERG ACT ///

They are very quickly achieving capabilities and will be a serious

player. They are only the junior partners for a few more months or a few

more years, but they will be partners in space (exploration).

/// END ACT ///

Changes in political priorities meant China's manned space program grew

in fits and starts since its beginnings in the 1970s.

The expensive program languished in the 1980's, but China's growing

prosperity allowed work to resume in 1992 with the first test of a

Shenzhou space capsule in 1999.

China has always said it is interested in peaceful uses of space, but

security is also an important consideration. Key Chinese space officials

say a vigorous space program keeps China from being bullied by other

advanced space-faring nations.

Federation of American Scientists researcher Charles Vick says the

intense effort needed to put a human in space will help China reap

down-to-earth benefits in military, commercial and scientific areas.

/// VICK ACT ///

If you don't push the basic sciences to push the basic technologies to

drive one's national economy and also provide for the national security

of a nation, you are really undermining your national economy (and) in a

lot of respects. the very foundation of your nation.

/// END ACT ///

Experts say manned space flight leads to improvements and inventions in

many different fields, including better computers, improved light-weight

materials, and new kinds of tools.

Beijing's military may get better communications, improved ways to spy

on enemies, and more effective methods for commanders to move units

around on future high-tech battlefields.

Chinese authorities believe the prestige of successful manned space

flight will help it attract more international customers for its

satellite launch business and other high tech industries.

But the author of a major book on China's space program says the most

important benefit is the training and experience an entire generation of

scientists and engineers will get from tackling the incredibly difficult

problems of manned space flight.

According to Professor Joan Johnson-Freese of the U-S

Naval War College, the excitement of a manned space program helps

attract the country's brightest students to demanding technical fields

that have the potential to boost the nation's economy.

But these benefits are not cheap.

Foreign space experts say overall Chinese spending for space programs

has grown recently and is now probably larger than the Russian effort,

but still only a fraction of the U-S space budget.

The president of the company that builds the Shenzhou capsules, Zhang

Qingwei (prono: zhang ching-way) told a Chinese newspaper that Beijing

has spent about two-point-three billion dollars on its manned space

program in recent years.

Analysts say its impossible to be sure of details in China's secretive

space program, but guess China spends about two billion dollars overall

on manned and unmanned programs each year.

Whatever the price, the spending comes at a time when

China's government must make some tough financial choices. Experts say

between 40 and 100 million people fall below China's poverty line -

between four and 10 percent of its population. The nation's banks are

groaning under the weight of bad loans, and many state-owned enterprises

are collapsing, throwing tens of millions of people out of work.

(Signed).

NEB/HK/JR/MH