Slashdot Mirror
China's Second Manned Space Flight
desert island writes "As if to coincide with Russia's space tourist, Beijing News speculated that China's second manned space launch will occur after the October 1-7 holiday. The spacecraft Shenzhou VI, with two astronauts, will be launched from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu province and will last 119 hours." From the article: "The mission will differ markedly from China's first manned space voyage, the Shenzhou V, which was a solo flight that lasted 21 hours in October 2003. China's space program is still shrouded in secrecy with little known about events until several days before they happen. However since the success of the first manned flight, authorities have shown a little more transparency."
My humanistic side OTOH keeps wondering why the Chinese people allow their dictatorial state machinery to continue the decades-long genocidal occupation of their peaceful Tibetan neighbors. If the brutal war-time occupation of parts of China by Japan's imperial army two generations ago is still a cause of pure hatred for the Chinese, can't they see that they themselves are continuing to totally extinguish the Tibetan nation, its language, its culture... stealing their natural resources (minerals and forests) while dumping China's nuclear and other waste on their ecologically delicate lands... causing the deaths of over a million Tibetans... mass-migrating millions upon millions of Chinese into Tibet, leaving Tibetans as impoverished minority in their own country...
People in the free world who have any respect for humanity should of course continue working towards ending this travesty of international justice but it is ultimately up to the Chinese people themselves to stop the crimes that are being committed in their name.
So while the ruling Party of China keeps on refining their rockets, the rest of us might as well put some effort on helping the Chinese people and their oppressed neighbors get better access to media and communications tools outside the state propaganda and censorship machine. The way MSN (MicroSoft Network) and Yahoo supports that oppressive machinery through their collaboration is nothing short of shameful.
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
With any launches now pushed to 2007 at the earliest due to foam problems and hurricane damage, I wonder if the shuttle will ever launch again. It seems to be easy for NASA to find reasons not to go into space.