SPACE WIRE
On eve of space age, China is keen not to miss out on new era of exploration
BEIJING (AFP) Oct 20, 2003
As a new era of exploration unfolds with man's slow progress into space, many Chinese are motivated by a wish to avoid the errors of their ancestors half a millennium ago.

China was left as a passive onlooker when the Europeans started charting and conquering the world in the 15th century, a fact that has been subject to new reflection after the successful launch of Shenzhou V.

"If we miss out on the space age, it will be similar to 500 years ago, when we missed out on maritime technology and missed a chance for development of society," the Beijing Evening News said in an editorial.

When Europe's foremost maritime powers began expanding overseas, China was arguably the most advanced civilization on the planet.

But China's decision to isolate itself at a time when Europe began looking outwards proved to have had nearly fatal consequences.

As the European empires started running out of areas to colonize in the late 19th century, they turned their attention to China, reducing the once-proud culture to semi-colonial status.

That is a powerful fact which may not just serve rhetoric in official papers like the Beijing Evening News, but may also act as an incentive for decision-makers in Beijing.

"Until the early 15th century, China was at the top of the world in terms of science and technology, but then there was a sharp decline," said Joseph Cheng, a China expert at City University of Hong Kong.

"There is a feeling that China should catch up in terms of science and technology," he said.

There is one important difference between the age of exploration half a millennium ago and today's space age.

As China takes its first probing steps into space, it is merely retracing paths first trodden by Russians and Americans more than four decades earlier.

At the start of the age of exploration, China was much better equipped to succeed than any other potential rival on the world stage.

China's most famous maritime explorer, the eunuch Zheng He, made seven overseas expeditions in the early 15th century, leading a vast armada as far as the east coast of Africa.

His fleet, equipped with the state-of-the-art technology of the day, may have consisted of ships five times longer and many times heavier than the small craft that took Columbus to the Americas in 1492.

The level of Chinese maritime technology at the time was so high that some historians have speculated that it might have taken sailors to the shores of Australia or even America, long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

China's overseas expansion was halted by the imperial court for not entirely understood reasons, but possibly due to fiscal constraints.

One can only dream of what the world would have looked like if China's explorers had not been reined in and had made all the discoveries of new continents ahead of the Europeans.

Perhaps, some argue, history would not have looked all that different, since Europeans may eventually have wound up colonizing the newly-discovered lands, even if they did not get there first.

"The Chinese armada did not establish colonies, in contrast to the European powers," said Cheng. "China was much less exploitative."

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