The Two Paragraphs That Effectively Banned U.S.-China Space Cooperation | WSJ

In 2011, Congress effectively banned the U.S. from working with China in space. The law is called the Wolf Amendment. Its goal was to prevent China and Chinese companies from stealing U.S. technology and also to put pressure on China over human rights abuses.

But today, the dynamics in space are changing. The International Space Station is set to retire in 2030. Meanwhile China’s space station, Tiangong, was just completed at the end of 2022. Both countries have plans to establish a presence on the same part of the moon in the next decade.

WSJ explains why that law was created and why whether it has hurt or helped the U.S. is a big debate in the space community.

Illustration: Madeline Marshall

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[xzcccc]

As a Chinese I absolutely thank to this Wolf man, He is a cornerstone of Chinese space industry

[thinsuetang]

That’s why China has every reason and right to reject the request from USA!!

[qwohzqh]

What human rights wolfy talking about? No symapthy towards Palestinians civilian and children bombed by IDF with USA weapons.

[lookman]

And a year later, on June 4 2024, Chang'e-6 unfurled China's flag on the dark side of the moon, then lifted off brining back to Earth some moon rock souvenirs!

[My-nlsg]

These two paragraphs single-handedly inspired China's independent and thriving space industry. Thanks to this legislature China's domestic space market has been effectively protected from foreign providers and collaboration, allowing domestic enterprises to fully mature every technical aspect of space exploration. Chinese people thank the US for such an amazing opportunity for their domestic industry

[Jello]

So you won’t work with the Chinese when they need help, but beg cooperation when they achieve something😂😂😂 talk about double standards

[liqingyuan]

Bill Nelson graduated with a law degree.
Apparently, this is the problem in the United States.
Engineers have no presence in this country, and the head of NASA is actually a lawyer!
It's just because engineers tend to do things, not talk about things.

[HypnotixzK]

American politicians talking about human rights abuses is so funny.

[rudyalfonsus]

Next year, Huawei will say thank you to Trump for blacklisting Huawei. Now, there are still 3 percent of huawei spareparts need to be imported. next year, 100% will be locally made. even the software

[VIAGRA]

Thanks US for making China great again!

[onaatu]

It was good for China and thanks to that beast Wolffff For helping China to built It's own space industry by it self
Love China

[fj]

Artificially slowing down human development, due to vested interests of the military industrial complex disguised as a fight for freedom, is just despicable

[victorkmlee]

A blessing in disguise. Had China participated in the ISS or other US-led space program, there will be restrictions or enticement so that the Chinese cannot go solo but always dependent in some way on others. This was what happened with the Beidou. China participated and invested money in the Galileo project only to be screwed by the Europeans who basically asked the Chinese to take a hike in terms of hierachy. Now Beidou is complete and superior to the Galileo. China thrives in adversity. China has a fully independent space program, the only sure way to master this field.

[Luvinist]

Frank Wolf, defender of human rights abroad and supporter of human rights abuse at home.

[tony]

The assumption is that Chinese cant do space Mr Wolf and their fellow congressmen got their faces slapped and dont want to admit😅

[dcauninaivonarck]

When I hear Bill Nelson, I see stupidity.

[syarifidayat]

Ohh yeah absolutely US cares a lot about human rights issues

[jagdpanther]

If your think Wolf was an idiot, there was a bigger fool out there in NASA: Bill Nelson.

[donhuang]

The WOLF Amendment - One mistaken step backward for NASA / US Congress, one giant set-back for Mankind.

[georgeeagle]

China will strictly abide by the Wolf Amendment. NASA, don't beg for the moon sample, or you would breach the amendment 😂