"The technological issues of the next generation of carrier rockets have basically been solved," said Zhang Yanhe of the Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defence."

Yeah; technological issues like "how do we get our people past the background check" and "what's the best way to smuggle plans out of the lab" and "how much do we need to pay Clinton to smooth over the difficulties".

"...satisfy China's demands...for the next 30 to 50 years".

So much for progressing beyond chuffing great fireworks in my lifetime then.

China receives billions of dollars in foreign aid from the west. Billions more in Carbon credits for Kyoto. It has TRILLIONS on dollars in foreign currency reserves. Here's a plan: stop killing your citizens with lousy environmental policies while trying to show yourself off to the world as a superpower potentiate.

so the problems with the next-gen carrier rockets have been solved, for the peaceful exploration of space.

it may be possible that their new rocket technology will find other uses...

the Chinese are inscrutable as ever, but lately, their straight-faced pronouncements sound sardonic to me. perhaps it's their warm-fuzzy history, or their gentle ways of dealing with their enemies.

any odds on who will complete an orbital-bombardment platform first? truly, we live in interesting times.

Don't have a problem with living in interesting times - it's dying in them that I'm not so enthusiastic about....

...if I were Chinese, I'd be pissed if all I could find in stores was that cheap American crap.

That human are "resources" to be spent like coal or softwood lumber.

China steals tech when it wants too and then used multinationals with manufacturing in it's borders to lobby their governments so that China can steal some more.

The US is still giving aid to China because China is still listed as a a developing nation.

".. satisfy China's demands for technological development and the peaceful use of space for the next 30 to 50 years"

Let's see if I got that right. The peaceful use of space for the next 30 to 50 years. After that, perhaps, we can expect what sort of use?