China has signaled its openness to space cooperation with the United States, calling on Washington to take practical measures to remove existing obstacles. The remarks were made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning during a daily press briefing on Thursday.
Mao’s comments came after NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Wednesday congratulated the success of China’s Chang’e-6 mission and expressed willingness to increase space dialogue and cooperation with China.
“Chang’e-6 completed the world’s first sampling and takeoff on the far side of the moon, taking a historic step in the peaceful use of outer space by mankind,” Mao said, expressing gratitude for the positive comments from many countries on the mission.
She noted that China and the United States have established mechanisms such as the working group on Earth science and space science cooperation, the China-U.S. civil space dialogue mechanism, and an exchange mechanism for orbital data between the two countries’ Mars probes.
“At present, there are some problems and difficulties in China-U.S. space cooperation that are rooted in U.S. domestic legislation, such as the Wolf Amendment, hindering normal exchanges and dialogue between the space agencies of the two countries,” she stated.
The Wolf Amendment, adopted in 2011, prohibits NASA from engaging in direct or indirect cooperation with China.
“If the U.S. sincerely hopes to promote exchanges and cooperation in the space field between the two countries, it should take practical measures to remove these obstacles,” Mao urged.
The call for cooperation underscores the potential for joint efforts in space exploration, which could benefit not just the two nations but humanity as a whole.
