Clocks in Hanover read nine p.m. when it happened this Tuesday night, but halfway across the world in China's Gobi Desert it was nine a.m. on a clear Wednesday morning. There a streak of exhaust climbing up through the sky marked the event, as the Long March rocket hurtled towards orbit with a 38-year-old Chinese fighter pilot aboard. Only moments after liftoff, China's official news agency trumpeted that "the time has come to realize the 1,000-year dream of flying dreamed by the sons and daughters of China," as the first Chinese astronaut rocketed into space.
This week's space shot places China in an elite club -- along with the United States and Russia, it is only the third nation to achieve manned spaceflight. Coming as it did at the end of the national communist party conference, the launch itself capped-off the propaganda bonanza that China's communist regime spent months whipping-up, trying to draw domestic and international respect for its space program.
In the days preceding the launch, images of rockets and astronauts filled official Chinese media. On the domestic front, state TV aired a 20-part documentary on the Chinese space program, accompanied by music videos (scored to army songs) meant to "express through song the romantic emotions and spirit of exploration of the Chinese people in their 1,000-year pursuit of a dream." Spokespeople told the population the launch ought to "lift China's morale and reputation," since "Chinese people have cherished the dream of space flight since ancient times." The launch itself was taped and shown later rather than broadcast live (for fear of the public relations disaster an accident would cause).
Internationally, China flaunted its space program as a sign of the nation's technical prowess. Spokespeople vehemently asserted that the rocket, capsule and spacesuit were unique Chinese designs, not re-engineered Russian technology (as many space experts suspected). Chinese officials hinted unsubtly at the military implications of manned spaceflight, noting the missile technology involved and the potential for space-based reconnaissance. Chinese President Hu Jintao said the launch was for "the glory of our great motherland and a mark for the initial victory of the country's first manned spaceflight and for the significant, historic step of the Chinese people in the advance of climbing over the peak of the world's science and technology."
Here in the U.S., Naval Academy space analyst Yu Maochun more colorfully and accurately described the propaganda blitz as "part of the communist party's near fanatical quest for international respect and dignity."
Of course, a communist state making spaceflight a prime component of its "near fanatical quest for international respect and dignity" should have a familiar ring, since the Soviet Union used the same gambit back in the days of Sputnik, Gagarin and the Space Race. The Soviets played the space card with great effect, creating panic in America about Russian ICBM technology and fear about communist domination of space. But the furor died down after the success of the Apollo program and moon landings; since the American victory in the Space Race, space largely slid off the public agenda.
China's space program, lacking the surprise and technological leap of the early Soviet missions, isn't likely to ruffle many feathers outside of Houston. NASA, currently in a time of transition and uncertainty over the shuttle program, may leverage the launch to extract new resources from the government. But this isn't a new Space Race; Americans are more concerned about fighting terrorists and resurrecting the economy than their own space program, let alone China's largely ceremonial spaceflight.
Sputnik was a propaganda coup for the Soviet Union, but Chinese leaders may have to satisfy themselves with 15 minutes of fame for the Shenzhou launch. As such they'll have an even harder time using success in space to paper-over weakness on Earth than their Soviet counterparts ever did. Because, just as Soviet technological triumphs were a faade thrown in front of economic collapse and inhuman abuse, China's spectacles in space stand in stark contrast to the brutal reality of the community state that stages them.
While Chinese officials speculate about space stations, moon landings or Mars missions, 140 million Chinese citizens live in grinding poverty, surviving on less than a dollar a day. The space mission closed the communist party's conference with a bang, but didn't save it from being forced to consider amending the Chinese constitution to allow private property. China's first man in space can promise that "I will not disappoint the motherland. I will complete each movement with total concentration. And I will gain honor for the People's Liberation Army and for the Chinese nation." But he can't glorify brutal repression and political persecution. And images of the Long March aren't about to supplant images of tanks rolling into Tiananmen Square in the foreign consciousness.
China can set out to conquer space, but it can't hide from the reality on the ground forever.
