On October 15, 2003, at 9:00 AM Beijing time, the People's Republic of China became the third nation in history to send a human into orbit. The "taikonaut," Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, landed the inaugural flight just over 21 hours later and immediately became a national hero. However, there are many in the United States who look suspiciously at China's accomplishment, fearing that China's developing space technology is being used for military reconnaissance. The US Department of Defense annual report on "Military Power of the People's Republic of China" in 2002 concludes that this manned spaceflight could eventually aid Chinese military space capabilities and further its development of direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons, US navigational satellite signal jamming technology, and ground-based laser systems. However, when this remarkable achievement for China is considered in a broader context of political relations, it is clear that the United States should now shrug off its Cold War mentality in favor of more optimistic US-China relations.

China is willing to work with countries and accept help from them for its space program. Russia, its main partner, signed a bilateral space cooperation agreement with China in 1994 that provides for mutual space program development in areas including human spaceflight and missions to Mars. Russia aided China in its development of the Shenzhou spacecraft, the model that took Yang into space, and continues to provide technical assistance and materials to China's program. China has also benefited from cooperation with many other nations, including Sweden, which launched the Freja satellite on a Chinese vehicle in 1992, and Brazil, which is working with China to develop satellites under the China-Brazil Earth Remote Sensing program. In addition, China is cooperating with the European Space Agency (ESA) in magnetospheric studies, and signed a cooperative agreement in September 2003 with the European Union for the EU-ESA Galileo navigation system, a more advanced version of the US Global Positioning System.

Beneath the facade of China's costly display in October, there lies a country still in need of economic help. According to the World Bank's World Development Indicators for 2002, China's gross national income index is a mere US$940, compared with US$35,060 for the United States. Despite a burst of recent growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) and loan growth in China declined in October 2003, a possible sign that the Chinese economy is starting to cool off. The Commerce Ministry recently reported that for the first ten months of 2003, FDI was at US$46.6 billion, giving the country a little over two more months to attract another US$13 billion to China's 2003 FDI target level of US$57 billion.

This economic situation represents an ideal opportunity for the United States to permanently strengthen its relations with China by utilizing the recent manned spaceflight as a springboard for bilateral cooperation in many sectors. Given its knowledge in the area of space technology and China's demonstrated willingness to work with other countries on space-related projects, the United States has the opportunity to join the large circle of nations that offer China assistance for its space program. Given that foreign-backed ventures make up half of the total exports in China and are critical in creating jobs (30 million former public workers, 150 million rural citizens, and about 200 million other people in China are jobless), it is in desperate need of US economic investment, both at the private and public levels.

From China's entry into the World Trade Organization to the support it has given to US corporations that tap its resources, China's promising steps suggest it is time for the United States to reduce some of the tariffs stifling economic integration and discouraging business cooperation at many levels. The United States should welcome China into the group of countries it considers strong allies, disavowing the history of suspicion and escalating standoffs, and accepting China as a partner in a broader, global context. Aiding the Chinese space program could be the first key step in launching US-China relations into an era of mutual trust and cooperation.