| As two of the three nations to develop the ability to launch astronauts into space, the United States and China rank among the world's principle space-faring powers and as such bear an immense responsibility to ensure the safe, equitable, and sustainable development of the space domain. This paper will argue maintaining a stable and transparent bilateral space relationship with China is essential to the strategic, economic, and civil space objectives of the United States. As such, the United States should adopt a pragmatic approach to space engagements with China. Under this model, the United States would view China's long march into space in a sensible and realistic manner by expanding bilateral cooperation with China in space based on practical rather than theoretical considerations. This could be accomplished by developing bilateral space cooperation with China at the micro, individual policy level. That is to say, the United States and China can cooperate bilaterally in space through dialogue, treaties, and the like without necessarily carrying out joint activities in space or other large scale space collaboration at a macro-level. Expanding cooperation at the micro level would require the United States Congress to repeal or revise the Wolf Amendment to allow NASA and OSTP to lead bilateral space cooperation efforts to ensure that development of the space domain is safe and sustainable. |
