China finds its way to space despite U.S

The nation seeks prestige and profit with a plan to launch satellites and probes.

Jim Yardley, The New York Times

Orlando Sentinel, May 26, 2007

BEIJING -- For years, China has chafed at efforts by the U.S. to exclude it from full membership in the world's elite space club. So, lately, China seems to have hit on a solution: create a new club.

Beijing is trying to position itself as a space benefactor to the developing world -- the same countries, in some cases, whose natural resources China covets here on Earth. The latest, and most prominent, example came last week when China launched a communications satellite for Nigeria in a project that serves as a case study of how space has become another arena where China is trying to exert its soft power.

Not only did China design, build and launch the satellite for oil-rich Nigeria -- it provided a huge loan to help pay the bill. China also has signed a satellite contract with another major oil supplier, Venezuela. It is developing an Earth-observation satellite system with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru and Thailand. And it has organized a satellite association in Asia.

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