What are the implications of China’s latest spacewalk?

On September 25, 2008, China’s Shenzhou 7 space module took off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia and two days later, on the afternoon of the 27th, Zhai Zhigang made history by becoming the first Chinese man to perform a spacewalk and the first human being to wave a miniature Chinese flag in space. China is now the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to perform an extra-vehicular activity. Today, with the taikonauts back safe and sound, gilded replicas of the Shenzhou 7 are being sold in the Xidan bookstore.

What are the implications of China’s space program and the latest spacewalk? Is it a waste of money or the start of a new space race? Here are our thoughts.

An Exercise in Futility

This article is in response to the pro-Tibet banner hung near Olympic Park before the Olympics began.

Even before the Olympics began, the protests had begun. However, the perpetrators should be congratulated for defeating their own cause.

The merits of their Tibet argument aside, such tactics as shown the other day are highly ineffectual. China is currently at a high point for nationalism and patriotism. A high percentage of Chinese are reported to feel comfortable with their government, perhaps despite the low level of political freedom or perhaps because of their increasing prosperity. Since the Olympics is viewed by many as a way to show China’s development to an international player, events that would cause the Chinese to lose face will be magnified.

Red Hot Cold War

1997. Riots broke loose in the streets. Years of money streaming into the Thai economy had come to a sudden end—the baht had collapsed. The economic jolt would wipe billions out of the economy. The shockwave would rattle the surrounding economies in Southeast Asia. Billionaire investor George Soros would be held as a “Satan” by the local Thai population for what it believed was his role in bringing the crisis to a tipping point. Eventually, the disturbance to the region subsided and the economies began recovery, but the path to the next potential Cold War had begun.

GDP in the Red?

A new article in The Economist reveals a startling discovery: when China’s GDP was recalculated using Purchasing Power Parity, China’s GDP fell by 40%. Is there cause for concern, or is this just more statistic slinging by economists?