In 2014 China made a round trip to the moon with robotic explorers. The Chinese intend to launch a mission to the moon that will return samples back to Earth. They have outlined their ambitious plans for outer space here. IEEE/Spectrum calls China the “Next Space Superpower.”
“The Chinese have said repeatedly that they are not going to go into space, land on the moon, look around, say, Been there, done that,’ and consider themselves done,” says Johnson-Freese. “They’re going to do stepping-stone infrastructure, and in those terms their space station makes sense.”
Where else might Chinese astronauts go? Their current program doesn’t commit to a crewed mission to the moon, but many experts believe the odds favor one. A recent report published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposes a road map that also mentions a crewed lunar base, a crewed mission to Mars, and robotic exploration of other planets by the year 2050.
And it has all been made possible because of political donations to Bill Clinton.
The Chinese space program wasn’t always so robust or successful. In the 90’s launch failures were commonplace. From the Washington Post:
The failed launch on Feb. 14, 1996, was yet another setback in China’s plans for its troubled Long March rocket. One after another in recent years, Long March rockets have gone haywire seconds after takeoff, doing near-barrel rolls or loops reminiscent of the early days of the American space program in the 1950s. Some released the satellites that U.S. firms paid millions of dollars to launch into useless, oddball orbits.
These mishaps, and the bitter post-accident recriminations that followed, set the stage for the current congressional and Justice Department investigations of Loral Space & Communications Ltd., the company whose satellite was demolished in the 1996 accident and that is being probed for allegedly turning over sensitive information to the Chinese as part of a post-crash report. Ironically, that report marked an effort by Loral to head off years of rising frustrations between U.S. companies and Chinese space officials over the repeated Long March failures.
For years before that accident, Chinese space executives tried to cover up the causes of the errors, U.S. industry executives said. In almost every case, the Chinese denied that their Long March rockets had been at fault and blamed the Western-built satellites.
“Until quite recently, many in the space world shared the view that the Long March was pretty shoddy, their quality control standards weren’t high, and dealing with them was a dicey situation,” said John Logsdon, director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. “It was made worse because many Westerners didn’t have confidence in China’s reviews.”
Chinese guidance technology was faulty. Enter Bill Clinton.
Schwartz met Clinton at a small political dinner in Manhattan in the spring of 1992. Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, conceded that he knew practically nothing about the defense industry, and the two chatted for about 20 minutes. Later in the evening, another guest asked Clinton a defense-related question, and Schwartz was impressed by how much of their conversation Clinton had absorbed. “His grasp of details, his grasp of the issues was extraordinary,” Schwartz recalled.
Mel Levine, a former California congressman who knows both men, said: “Bernard clearly likes Clinton personally. And Clinton has paid a lot of attention to him.”
Another prominent Clinton official who paid attention to Schwartz was Brown. In 1994, Schwartz was one of 24 executives on Brown’s plane to China.
Two months before the late summer trip, Schwartz wrote a check for $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee. He denied there was any link.
Sound familiar?
Here are the timelines:
April 24, 1995: Loral chairman Schwartz gives $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
June 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $20,000 to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which provide support for Democratic Senate candidates.
Aug. 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $75,000 to DNC.
Sept. 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $20,500 to DSCC.
Oct. 9, 1995: Secretary of State Warren Christopher decides satellites should remain a military munitions item.
Nov. 29, 1995: Schwartz gives $100,000 to DNC.
Nov. 29, 1995: A Chinese government agency writes Loral, asking for help in getting an upgrade for its dual-use imaging technology, exports of which are prohibited under U.S. sanctions.
Jan. 26, 1996: Loral is sold to Lockheed for $9 billion.
Once Clinton approved the launch of a Chinese rocket with Loral Hughes help:
Feb. 6, 1996: Clinton approves the launch of four communications satellites on Chinese rockets.
Feb. 6, 1996: Wang Jun of CITIC, owners of percentages in Chinese satellite companies, visits the White House for coffee and dines with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.
Feb. 8, 1996: The White House and Commerce Department begin to talk about the satellite export issue again.
Feb. 14, 1996: A Chinese rocket carrying Loral Intelsat satellite explodes, destroying a Chinese village.
Feb. 15, 1996: Schwartz gives $15,000 to DSCC.
Feb. 15, 1996: The State Department gets an urgent request from the White House to speed up the process of switching the satellite licensing to the Commerce Department.
Feb. 29, 1996: Schwartz gives $50,000 to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which bankrolls Democratic House candidates.
March 8, 1996: China launches missiles.
March 14, 1996: Clinton decides to move the satellite licensing function to the Commerce Department.
March 15, 1996: Loral President J.A. Lindfelt writes Commerce to say the export of a dual-use technology, known as synthetic aperture radar, is being held up by the Defense, State and Commerce departments.
April 1996: Schwartz announces the formation of Loral Space and Communications.
April 24, 1996: Schwartz gives $50,000 to DSCC.
June 10, 1996: Schwartz gives $100,000 to DNC.
July 22, 1996: Liu Chao-Ying of China Aerospace meets Clinton with Johnny Chung.
July 31, 1996: Schwartz gives $5,000 to DSCC.
The timeline of Chinese money:
August 1996: Chung accounts show an influx of $300,000 from Liu Chao-Ying.
Aug. 18, 1996: Chung gives $20,000 to DNC to attend Clinton’s birthday party.
Aug. 28, 1996: Chung gives $15,000 to DNC at Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Sept. 16, 1996: Schwartz gives $30,000 to DSCC.
Sept. 20, 1996: Schwartz gives $20,000 to DSCC.
Oct. 16, 1996: Schwartz gives $10,000 to DSCC.
Oct. 18, 1996: Schwartz gives $70,000 to DNC.
Oct. 24, 1996: Schwartz gives $5,000 to DSCC.
Nov. 5, 1996: New guidelines on Commerce licensing of satellites are published.
Nov. 5, 1996: Clinton is elected to his second term as president.
Oct., 1997: A federal investigation of Loral begins.
Feb. 12, 1998: As Clinton ponders whether to sign another waiver allowing launch of a Loral satellite aboard a Chinese missile, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger sends him a memo saying the Justice Department `has cautioned that a national interest waiver in this case could have a significant adverse impact on any prosecution [of Loral] that might take place based on a pending investigation of export violation.’
But Berger adds that `the advantages of this project outweigh the risk,’ and `it is inappropriate to penalize [Loral] before they have even been charged with any crime.’
Feb. 18, 1998: Clinton signs a waiver allowing Loral satellite to be lifted into orbit by the Chinese.
Bill Clinton handed over guidance technology to the Chinese for political money. Hillary sold America out to Russia for political money. In selling out to the Russians Hillary merely picks up the Clinton Family tradition and carries it forward.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Let’s not forget that Clinton appointed Hazel O’Leary to head up the Dept. of Energy. And one of the things she did (under pressure from the White House) – was to relax security requirements at the nuclear weapons design lab – Sandia National Laboratory. Badges were changed to minimize different clearances. Security clearances were relaxed…no longer looking back at 20 years – only 7. It became easier for naturalized citizens to get a Top Secret clearance. Wen Ho Lee – a naturalized former ‘citizen’ of Taiwan, got top secret clearance. He smuggled top secret data from the secure network and put in on his unclassified computer attached to the Internet…and China successfully stole ALL our nuclear weapons design secrets. (And the investigators deliberately bungled the investigation of Wen Ho Lee so that he pleaded guilty to mishandling secrets, but won a $1.6 Million payment for alleged mistreatment by the prosecution.)
To the Clintons – national security is something that they are willing to compromise for enough money. Benedict Arnold was a piker, compared to the Clintons.
Mike Wen Ho Lee was hired in 1978 at Loa Almos blaming the Clintons for someone who had a high level security clearance for that seems idiotic,
A quick wikipedia look will tell Lee’s story.
and Doctor John the problem in the Long March rockets wasn’t the guidance technology it was much more basic than that, it was in the welds When a rocket blows up in the first few minutes of flight (like Challenger did) you don’t look at telemetry as being the problem
As far as money is concerned the Clintons are NOT financially ambitious. They own 2 houses one in Washington DC and one in New York. They paid less than 5 million for the two of them. Clearly the Clinton’s main motivation in life is not personal wealth accumulation.
Hey how about a medical update on the long term brain damage that Hillary suffered? It would be especially humiliating for any Republican to be beaten by a woman who was intellectually disabeled
And then the world was distracted by BJ’s antics in the Oval Office when news broke of his sexual abuse of an employee, Monica Lewinsky. Of course, nothing happened … no prosecution of sexual harassment of an employee by a someone in an obvious position of power.
@john:”As far as money is concerned the Clintons are NOT financially ambitious.”
I do not understand how you can say any such thing? These guys are nothing but thieves who suffer from plutophilia and care not one wit about the consequences of who they screw in the process to get what they want. Your measure of their desire for money is a weak and lazy way to throw off any criticism in this regard. You are either having the wool pulled over your head, you are sticking your head in the sand, or you have your head up your ass defending these criminals.
@Aguila1952:
There is neither “either—” nor any “or— , or—, or—” involved here!
DrJohn:
You skipped the parts where Ron Brown dies in an airplane crash with a bullet to the back of the head and AlGoreleone and the Buddhist temple ‘non-fund raising” events and the Charlie Trie Chinese restaurant connections DNC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controvery
I do not refer to the DNC as the demo-COMMUNISTS lightly or purely in jest!
@Budvarakbar: I also remember slick looking right a America and saying “I never had sex” and how dumbocrats tried to defend his actions!! I also remember the disgusting pardon of Rich and guess who his AG was, the sleaze ball racist Holder!!
@Aguila1952: Well said, I remember Dumbocrats trying to defend him by saying it was a private issue. Wrong, he did it at the work place during working hours. Tell me what corporate CO would still have a job if this happened to them?? Also the idea of private is disgusting given how the press has NO problems crawling in a woman’s womb and ripping out an infant!!
@Common Sense: Clinton also gave Monica L. a job in the Pentagon that she was not qualified for. This denied someone else the chance for a promotion or a job. That also constitutes “sexual harassment.” (If person A is passed over for a job because person B gives sexual favors to the boss…then person A has been handicapped and hampered…and that is unlawful.) So ‘sexual harassment’ can still occur even if there is consent.
@john: John – it is ‘convenient’ to say no guilt was proven because the investigations were run by the Democrats who did the cover up.
IRS investigating conservative organizations and denying them proper classification – AG ‘investigates’ and supports the cover up.
ATF does a gun-running program ….AG ‘investigates’ and supports the cover up.
Under Clinton – they investigate themselves for Loral/China, Wen Ho Lee, Chinese government campaign contributions, etc. etc.
Just consider what would happen if a Republican Administration investigated themselves and the media passed it off as ‘nothing there…move along’?? All the above stink to high heaven.
And – add in Hillary’s illegal e-mail server (and it was a server for her aide(s)) – and then she failed to turn over the electronic files. She printed out some e-mails and gave hard-copies, which are not usable and the ‘metadata’ is lost. That is arrogance in the extreme! [And stop with the BS about ‘someone else did it’. It was wrong then, it was wrong now. When it was done THEN – it wasn’t to the same degree as now…and the rules were TIGHTENED so that it wouldn’t be done again….]
@Budvarakbar: To paraphrase BJ, “Define ‘or’.”