During a United States House Appropriations Committee
hearing on May 17, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson accused the Chinese Communist
Party of stealing the United States' most vital technological secrets, The
Singapore Post reported.
"Yeah, they're pretty good at stealing, And I think
that's incumbent upon us to take cybersecurity very, very seriously,"
Nelson said.
This comes as a response to the questions raised by the US
representative and committee member, Robert Aderholt who noted that the space
vehicles being developed between private US companies and state-run Chinese
organisations have similarities.
"We simply cannot ignore the threat from China and our
adversaries who are making technological, manufacturing, and exploration
advancements daily," The Singapore Post quoted Aderholt as saying.
"For far too long, we have allowed China and other
adversaries to challenge our space dominance and their ambitions only continue
to grow," he said adding, "The US needs a clear vision that could
last across administrations to dictate its space policy more effectively, as a
matter of national defence," the report further quoted Aderholt as saying.
Notably, the US government has advised the private industry
that China is engaged in a committed effort to illicitly acquire critical and
emerging technologies in every sector of the US economy, particularly those
vital to its military modernisation efforts, the Singapore Post reported.
Referring to this, Aderholt termed the US technologies
required for achieving political dominance in space as the precious commodity
of the country.
Bill Nelson, responding to Aderholt said, "I believe we
are in, and I have said this publicly before I think we're in a space race with
China," adding that this will define the world's strategic and military
situation for decades to come.
The report said that the experts have warned that China's
space programme is a military threat to Western powers. Air Force Secretary
Frank Kendall has said that the United States would need to develop offensive
space weapons to deter the threat. China has made no secret of its ambitions
for space. One official white paper detailed a plan for the Communist regime to
become the world's leading "space power."
Meanwhile, China's aerospace experts condemned NASA's claims,
stressing that China has achieved space achievements beyond the US despite the
strong blockade of the country because China is taking the road of independent
space development, as per the Chinese media reports.
The Global Times quoted, an academician of the International
Academy of Astronautics, Deng Yulin, Bill Nelson's false accusation exposed the
NASA chief's double standards.
"The allegation of NASA's chief is not only
unreasonable but also certain to be laughed at by history," said another
expert.