Space exploration can benefit humans

Joint space research good for the world

Essentially, the urge to explore the unknown has prompted countries to conduct space research. Overall, what is at play in space research is nothing more than the thirst for knowledge and to meet practical or potential needs.
Yet the US seems to have other purposes in mind－for example to militarize space and intimidate other countries by establishing a Space Command. China has always opposed the weaponization of space, and made peaceful use of space a precondition for space research. As such, China will never militarize space, nor will it trigger, or be forced into, an arms race in space, let alone adopt a new type of Strategic Defense Initiative, which former US president Ronald Reagan proposed in 1983 as a strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks (from the Soviet Union).

Instead, China would want the US to cooperate on space exploration with the ultimate goal of serving the people as a whole.

Since space is just like a highway, trash left behind by one country could cause harm to all. Therefore, as the two largest economies and major space powers, the US and China should make joint efforts to prevent such a scenario from happening and work together for global common good.

Fan Jishe, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences