Can U.S. afford to snub China in space quest?
This story was filed by CBS News producer Connie Young in Beijing.
The fast-approaching end of the U.S. space shuttle program is about to leave America entirely dependent on its international partners to carry astronauts to and from space for the foreseeable future, just as a tenuous relationship with China - whose space program is advancing rapidly - hits an all-time low in the area of space exploration.
Beijing was deeply offended when two journalists from China's state-run Xinhua news agency were barred from covering the historic launch of the shuttle Endeavour in May, the second-to-last mission for the U.S. shuttle program.
Endeavour blasted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on May 16, carrying an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 particle detector - a $1.5 billion apparatus developed, in part, by Chinese scientists. It became a source of national pride in China.
Banned from covering the launch, the government mouthpiece lashed out in a report two days blasting "discriminative" new U.S. legislation which bans any of NASA's government-apportioned funding being used in partnership with, to support or host any entity of the Chinese government.
The Xinhua article refers to a clause added by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House committee which oversees NASA's budget - and a fierce critic of China's human rights record, to an emergency national budget bill passed in April to keep the U.S. government running for six months.
Xinhua's article claimed "even Americans themselves" viewed the so-called "Wolf Clause" as discriminatory. The emergency budget averted a government-wide shutdown, and it was passed in spite of vocal objections by members of both parties to many of the restrictions included. However, there has been little talk in Washington specifically about the clause on space cooperation with China, and no U.S. lawmakers have publicly labeled it "discriminative," as Xinhua suggested.
"Obviously, the 'Wolf Clause' runs counter to the trend that both China and the United States are trying to push ahead their exchanges and cooperation in science and technology," said the Xinhua article.
In remarks to the House Appropriations subcommittee explaining his stance, Wolf made it clear China's dismal record on human rights was behind the legislation blocking any NASA interaction with China's military-run space program.
"Consider our differing worldviews," said Wolf. "The U.S. was founded on the premise that liberty is a birthright, that individual human life is sacred, that the freedom to worship according to the dictates of your conscience is paramount. The Chinese government operates antithetically to these beliefs."
"There is no clearer indication of the gulf that exists between our two countries than the Chinese government's treatment of its own people."
But experts in U.S.-China relations accuse Wolf of seeking to "ram through a potentially unconstitutional assault on the president's ability to conduct scientific diplomacy."
Gregory Kulacki, a Beijing-based global security analyst and member of the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in the journal "Nature" that the restrictions placed on NASA may, in part, be partisan U.S. politics threatening to further exacerbate a relationship already fraught with distrust.
The scientist tells CBS News that Wolf's amendment was "prompted by efforts by the Obama administration to reach out to the Chinese (on space cooperation) even though the Bush Administration had been doing the same thing for years."
"The ban should be lifted," wrote Kulacki bluntly. "The progress of Chinese space activity during the previous US administration suggests that the prohibitions that have stifled Sino-American scientific cooperation for decades have not achieved their aims, and have arguably been counterproductive. China has shown that it has the talent and resources to go it alone. The sanctions have only severed links between the countries and made a new generation of Chinese intellectuals resentful and suspicious of the United States. And they stand in contrast to the tradition of scientists strengthening diplomatic relations."
Other experts agree that cooperation between the two countries, particularly on space and science projects, is mutually beneficial. Mitigating space debris and collecting data for weather and natural disasters around the globe, once spearheaded by former Secretary of State Collin Powell, are a few examples of common interests.
Joan Johnson-Freese, Chairman of the National Security Decision Making Department at the U.S. Naval War College, an expert on China's space program, agrees with Kulacki's assessment.
"I think (the bill) is fool-hearted," she told CBS News in a telephone interview. "We ought to be working with them on things like space debris and we also should be working with them so that we can learn more about their program."
"There are a number of members of Congress who are adamant we will not work with China," said Johnson-Freese. "Meanwhile, China is reaching out and working with many, many countries."
Beijing now has cooperative agreements with Russia, Canada, Europe, Venezuela as well as neighboring countries. Collaborations include joint satellite projects, aerospace university exchanges, export of communication satellites and the sharing of some of its satellite imaging data for natural resources.
"About the only country that has said 'no thank you' to cooperation with China, is the United States," noted Johnson-Freese.
The "Wolf Clause" expires with the rest of the emergency budget in Sept. 2011. It's not clear how much support his stance has in Congress, and thus how likely it is NASA's ban on cooperation a longer-term ban on NASA's cooperation with China is when a longer-term budget bill is considered in the late summer and early autumn.
"I don't doubt the intentions of Congressman Wolf, or the sincerity of his views. I think he honestly believes he's doing the right thing here," Kulacki told CBS News.
"I just wish he would take some time to reconsider his position."
Edited by CBSNews.com's Tucker Reals in London.