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Monday, January 22, 2018
EDITORIAL
A New Cold War?—No, But It Could Be Worse Than the Cold War
Jan. 21 (EIRNS)—From Russia, from China, and from New York University’s Dr. Stephen F. Cohen in the United States, experts are speaking about the beginning of a new Cold War—and with it, the danger of hot war involving the superpowers, and even nuclear strikes.
Now for those who lived through it, the phrase “Cold War” conjures up the image of an endless, one-dimensional nightmare with no escape. It kills the thinking process—which we can ill-afford right now.
In reality, the historical parallel is all wrong—but the results of the neo-cons’ and neoliberals’ wildly throwing the U.S. into confrontation with Russia and China today, may actually be much worse than the old Cold War of the last century. Remember that after the crime of the two atomic bombings of Japan, nuclear weapons were never used during the Cold War—although there were many near-misses and lucky breaks. U.S. troops never fought Russian troops. Although U.S. and Chinese troops fought in Korea, the two nations were never actually at war. We had a very close call in the Cuban Missile Crisis—civilization was only saved by the soon-to-be-assassinated President Jack Kennedy. But somehow, for forty years, the madmen who were legion on both sides were ultimately contained—often just barely so.
But are they contained now? Is this what is seen in the current government shutdown in the U.S., or in Illinois Democratic Sen. “Dickie” Durbin’s obscene libel? Just the opposite! The meaning of “the Resistance” is that the lunatics have taken over the asylum, as in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether.” Their “strategy” is “bring it on!” “The worse the better!” Especially now when facts are about to be made public which explode the whole “Russiagate” hoax against President Trump and the Constitution. They hope against hope, that if they simply turn everything upside down and throw it out the window, maybe, somehow, that will lead to the removal of the hated President Trump.
A man who used his brains fully while living half of his adult life in the Cold War is statesman Lyndon LaRouche. With uncanny accuracy, he forecast the way out from under the shadow of thermonuclear holocaust. The Belt and Road, the New Silk Road, is nothing but today’s form of his vision going back to the 1960s. Even though it was never properly adopted by both the superpowers—although we came very close to that—his Strategic Defense Initiative nevertheless brought the Cold War to an end at the close of the 1980s, as LaRouche had so precisely forecast.
LaRouche and his method, with his Four Laws which incorporate the SDI within his whole career as a groundbreaking scientist and economist, can bring us through this crisis in time to escape the disaster which threatens.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
U.S. Neo-Con Faction Issues National Defense Strategy, Joins British Coup against Trump
Jan. 20 (EIRNS)—The National Defense Strategy (NDS) released by Defense Secretary Gen. Jim Mattis yesterday, under the umbrella of the December 2017 National Security Strategy, is a declaration of war against the core international policy upon which President Donald Trump was elected, that of reestablishing good working U.S. relations with the world’s great powers which the Bush and Obama regimes had destroyed. As such, it is part of the British-orchestrated drive to either hog-tie, impeach, overthrow or assassinate the President of the United States.
President Trump has reiterated repeatedly that good relations with Russia and China are a “good thing”; his opponents in the military establishment declare, in the National Defense Strategy document, that their “principal priorities” are mobilizing U.S. military, economic, financial, diplomatic, law enforcement, intelligence and “information” assets against Russia and China, because those nations—not terrorism or “rogue regimes”—are the United States’ primary adversaries. And why? Because they are “undermining the international order” of austerity and permanent war which the American people elected President Trump to end.
“National Defense Strategy Will Rebuild Dominance,” the Department of Defense headlined its release on the press briefing Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development Elbridge Colby gave on the document yesterday. The 12-page unclassified “Summary of the 2018 NDS” attacks China and Russia over and over for threatening a unipolar world—which no longer exists. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is not mentioned by name (in the unclassified document, at least), but China is repeatedly denounced for “using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors.” U.S. allies and partners are to be squeezed to provide “greater defense cooperation” and “contribute military capabilities” to regional “coalitions” in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, in particular; the Defense Department intends to mobilize interagency action to “counter” U.S. allies’ economic relationships with “adversaries.” Space, too, is declared to be a “warfighting domain,” while the U.S. nuclear force triad is to be modernized.
Reflecting the old, tired oligarchic geopolitical intent which typifies the document as a whole, excerpts from the “Strategic Environment” section argues that “China and Russia are now undermining the international order from within the system by exploiting its benefits while simultaneously undercutting its principles and rules of the road.” It claims that the “reemergence of long-term, strategic competition by what the National Security Strategy classifies as revisionist powers” is the “central challenge to U.S. prosperity and security.... It is increasingly clear that China and Russia want to shape a world consistent with their authoritarian model—gaining veto authority over other nations’ economic, diplomatic, and security decisions.”
Moreover, it claims, “China is leveraging military modernization, influence operations, and predatory economics to coerce neighboring countries to reorder the Indo-Pacific region to their advantage. As China continues its economic and military ascendance, asserting power through an all-of-nation long-term strategy, it will continue to pursue a military modernization program that seeks Indo-Pacific regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global preeminence in the future.... Concurrently, Russia seeks veto authority over nations on its periphery in terms of their governmental, economic, and diplomatic decisions, to shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and change European and Middle East security and economic structures to its favor.”
Lavrov: U.S. Opts for ‘Confrontationist’ Strategic Policy Instead of Dialogue and Cooperation
Jan. 20 (EIRNS)—In a wide-ranging press conference yesterday in New York, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took aim at what he called the U.S.’s “regrettable” strategic policy toward Russia and China which, “instead of relying on international law,” the U.S. feels it has to prove its leadership through “confrontational concepts and strategies.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made similar remarks yesterday as well.
Russia is ready for dialogue, Lavrov said, to discuss military doctrine just as it’s been done in the past “when military people from both countries were building trust.” There are many sober-minded people, he underscored, who understand that “strategic stability should be maintained, and all risks to it eliminated.” But, he warned, this is impossible without U.S.-Russia cooperation.
The National Security Strategy, released Dec. 18, 2017, names China as the number-one “aggressive” economic power, followed by Russia as second in line, Lavrov pointed out. Thus, together with China, apparently, “we’re imploding the international system from the inside” and threatening the post-World War II world order, “ostensibly created by the U.S. and its allies after World War II.” In reality, Lavrov went on, the former Soviet Union contributed greatly to the establishment of that world order, forged by the United Nations.
Lavrov also addressed the U.S. role in northern Syria where, RT reports, he said that U.S. forces were “seriously involved in creating alternative government bodies on a vast part of the Syrian territory.” This, he said, contradicts the U.S.’s own oft-stated obligations, “on maintaining the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Syria.”
Washington’s inconsistency on Syria “is quite characteristic of modern U.S. diplomacy,” Lavrov stated, including the reasons they are in Syria “and the actions of the coalition which they command.” He said on many occasions he had discussed Russia’s concerns with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about U.S. actions in Syria. Although Tillerson has told him the U.S. is only in Syria to fight ISIS, “it now appears that the U.S. has some more long-term plans.” Thus, Lavrov said, “we will have to take this into account and look for solutions that won’t allow the destruction of Syrian sovereignty.”
China Responds Sharply to Dangerous Washington Neo-Con Gang’s Provocations
Jan. 20 (EIRNS)—China continues to blast the neo-con policies coming from the U.S. that they find dangerous and threatening, while demonstrating a clear understanding that good U.S.-China relations are necessary, and that there is an all-out factional war underway around the Trump Presidency, all the while maintaining an open and positive approach to Trump personally.
Responding to the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy document and other recent developments, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington stated: “If someone is always wearing dark glasses, they will never see a bright world.... Peace and development are the themes of this era, and are also the shared aspirations of mankind. However, if some people look at the world through a Cold War, zero-sum game mindset, then they are destined to see only conflict and confrontation.” China Daily wrote that the spokesman said China and the U.S. shoulder important responsibilities and have extensive common interests in upholding world peace and stability and promoting global development and prosperity. “We hope that the U.S. can align itself with the trend of the world and the will of the people, and put the world and China-U.S. relations into the perspective of cooperation.”
Similarly, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang was asked on Jan. 19 to respond to the comments by Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, at a security meeting sponsored by the Indian government on Jan. 18, that “the reality is that China is a disruptive transitional force in the region.” Lu said: “What on Earth are [they] worrying about, and that China is a disruptor of what? China has always taken the road of peaceful development. That’s what we have said and done.” He continued with some irony: “It’s just a comment made by some individuals. It is not the first time they have done so.... I hope more attention can be paid to the reaction and comments of the majority of the international community. Of course, there is always deep unease about China from some persons and certain countries.”
Xinhua features an article Jan. 19 with the headline, “China Watchers Say Frequent Interactions between Xi, Trump Important for Bilateral Ties.” The article cites three experts in the U.S. whom Xinhua interviewed, who make the point that “China watchers in the U.S. have said a good personal relationship and frequent exchange of ideas between the two leaders is important for China-U.S. relations.”
Global Times meanwhile reports that Trump has a large following in the Chinese population, where he “is highly thought of as a political correctness-defying patriot.” For example, Qiu Zhenhai, a popular Phoenix TV commentator, wrote on his social media page, “It’s an indisputable fact that many Chinese love Trump, and it became more apparent after his visit to China last November.”
Former Defense Secretary Perry: Treat Hawaii Nuclear Incident ‘Not as a False Alarm, but as a Real One’
Jan. 20 (EIRNS)—William J. Perry, who was President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense from 1994-97, wrote an article published in Politico on Jan. 15, under the headline “The Terrifying Lessons of Hawaii’s Botched Missile Alert.” In it, Perry presents an insightful insider’s evaluation of just what the Hawaiian nuclear missile scare really means, and what policies should be adopted to avoid the launching of nuclear war by error. He begins by noting that, “as a former Secretary of Defense, my advice is we treat the Hawaii incident not as a false alarm but a real one.”
What he means by that is that the current launch-on-warning system is fraught with dangers that errors and miscalculations can actually unleash thermonuclear war. There have been numerous alarms over the years about incoming missiles, all of which turned out to be false, but “we survived multiple Cold War close calls through a combination of good management and—to a troubling degree—plain good luck.”
Perry continues: “One hydrogen bomb could kill essentially everyone in a city like Honolulu or Hilo, even if the residents took cover. So the ‘what to do’ has to happen before the missile is fired. The way to save yourself and your family from being killed in a nuclear war is to keep such a war from happening. Once the missiles are launched, it is too late. And that is one important lesson we could learn from the Hawaii false alert.
“But there is also a second lesson. If the attack alert came from our military warning system, the president would be faced immediately with an existential decision. He would have 5 to 10 minutes to decide whether to launch our ICBMs before they were destroyed in their silos. If he decides to launch them, and it is a false alert, there will be no way to call them back or abort them in flight. He will have mistakenly started World War III, a war likely to destroy our civilization.”
Perry concludes with a policy recommendation: “That is the problem we face, and no ‘duck-and-cover’ drills can solve it, or even mitigate it. Instead, we need to get serious about reengaging the Russians on ways of reducing nuclear dangers to both of us; we need to give up our ‘launch on warning’ policy; and we need to reconsider our deterrent forces, putting them in ground and sea forces that do not require launch on warning. All of these actions will be hard to execute, but the possible consequences of failure are so great that we have a responsibility to give them our highest priority.”
U.S. POLITICAL & ECONOMIC
Rep. Devin Nunes Sets Stage for Taking Down British Coup Aimed at the President
Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has unleashed an operation that could quickly bring down the coup attempt by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his British controllers—and fully confirm the charges documented in the LaRouche PAC pamphlet documenting Mueller’s crimes (“Robert Mueller Is an Amoral Assassin. He Will Do His Job if You Let Him.”).
On Jan. 18, Nunes wrote a four-page classified memo, the so-called “FISA memo,” documenting key elements gleaned from the material he had extracted, with great difficulty and with help from the courts, from the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the MI6-Christopher Steele dossier and the role of the Fusion GPS “cash for trash” company, on behalf of the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, in leaking and circulating the dossier.
Reports had been circulating that the documents obtained proved many of the accusations made in the LaRouchePAC report, including that the discredited Steele dossier, unvetted and unsubstantiated, was the basis for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court ruling allowing the FBI to spy on the Trump Presidential campaign, and then on the President’s team after he took office. The problem was, how to make this criminal activity public, and to force criminal charges against the perpetrators within the Barack Obama intelligence operation.
On Jan. 18, the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to allow every Member of Congress to read the classified four-page memo. Not one Democrat on the Committee voted for it, even though it would allow their fellow Democrats to read it.
Developments have moved very quickly since then, setting off a political firestorm in Washington. The hysteria among Democrats is reaching a fever pitch, with Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, charging that Nunes is on a campaign to undermine and discredit the FBI and our “law enforcement professionals,” insisting that the memo is just a collection of inaccuracies and unfounded accusations. Various media outlets—Britain’s Reuters most prominently—have gone so far as to suggest that Nunes is in league with the Russians, as Russian bots and Twitter accounts are promoting release of the memo under the hashtag #releasethememo.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) released a statement on Jan. 18 that began: “The House must immediately make public the memo prepared by the Intelligence Committee regarding the FBI and the Department of Justice. The facts contained in this memo are jaw-dropping and demand full transparency. There is no higher priority than the release of this information to preserve our democracy....” On Jan. 20, Gaetz led 64 other Republicans who had read the memo in signing a letter to Nunes, urging its release, and saying, “The audience of this document should not be limited to Members of Congress —the American people deserve to know the information it contains.” Other Republican congressmen who read the classified memo continue to publicly state their shock at what they read.
Speaking on Fox News, Gaetz asserted that “I think that this will not end just with firings. I believe there are people who will go to jail. I was very persuaded by the evidence.” The entire Mueller investigation “is a lie built on a foundation of corruption.... It is a real attempt to undermine the President.... It would be ludicrous if we allow the Mueller probe to go ahead.”
Although Representative Nunes is not telegraphing his next move, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Fox TV: “This could happen real quick. Chairman Nunes is committed to getting this information to the public.”
The next step is for the House Intelligence Committee to vote to release the memo to the public based on House Rule 10, which allows classified material to be released by the Congress if the public interest outweighs the national security aspects. The President would then have five days to object. If he does object—it is highly unlikely Trump would do so—the full House can override. It could be released by the end of the month.
Will Nunes Memo Show, Obama’s FBI Gave FISA Intercept Data to Fusion GPS and CrowdStrike?
Jan. 21 (EIRNS)—This is the explosive question posed by a Jan. 19 article in the Daily Caller by former prosecutor Sidney Powell, and by a Daily Caller interview the next day with former Washington, D.C. U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.
In his Jan 8. interview with Washington radio station WMAL, reported in the EIR Daily Alert on Jan. 9, diGenova had said that National Security Agency director Adm. Mike Rogers had discovered illegal FISA Section 702 wiretaps by the Obama Administration in early 2016, ordered an internal NSA investigation, and reported these illegalities to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court (FISC).
The new information provided by Powell and diGenova cites the resulting decision by the FISA Court dated April 27, 2017, and since declassified with redactions. Among other things, that decision excoriated senior leaders of the FBI for providing raw FISA data to outside contractors. Among other sections, Powell quotes footnote 69 of the ruling:
“Improper access granted to the ***[redacted] contractors ... ***[redacted] ... seems to have been the result of deliberate decision-making. ***[redacted] access to FBI systems was the subject of an interagency memorandum of understanding (presumably prepared or reviewed by FBI lawyers). No notice of this practice was given to the FISC until 2016.”
Who were these contractors who were given access to raw communications data, Powell and diGenova ask? Was it Fusion GPS, where, since demoted, Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie worked? Was it CrowdStrike, which claimed the Russians hacked the DNC computers, and then refused to allow access to those computers?
In related developments as the lies of “Russiagate” explode, Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) said Jan. 20 that the House Intelligence Committee “plans to begin” the release of its four-page memo to the public, as 65 Congressmen have asked, after having already made it available to all members of the House of Representatives. He further said that the process may take 19 Congressional work days or longer.
Otherwise, Chuck Ross reported in the Daily Caller today that the Justice Department wrote the Senate Homeland Security Committee that it had lost (“failed to retain”) the text messages between FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, for the crucial five-month period between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.
A Raging Fight Exists over Syria Policy within the Administration
Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson demonstrated the fierce division within the Trump Administration over how to proceed in Syria now that ISIS is largely defeated. Tillerson presented an extremely provocative speech on Syria at the Hoover Institution on Jan. 17, then said quite contradictory things to the press on the flight back to Washington. This is not the first time that Tillerson’s formal speeches reflect the hard- line position of some in the Administration, followed by a far more reasonable policy expressed in his unscripted statements to the press. The speech at Hoover presented a factually-false picture of Syria and its history, blaming the problems in Syria over the past 50 years entirely on the Assad family, calling them vile dictators, who oppress and kill their people. He even claimed that Bashar al-Assad was “covertly backing” al-Qaeda, and “abetting” ISIS by “turning a blind eye” to their growth. This is absurd.
Tillerson announced that U.S. forces will not leave Syria for an “indefinite” period, which is clearly illegal under both U.S. and international law. But he claimed this is only to fight ISIS remnants, so as not to allow a resurgence as happened when U.S. forces were pulled out of Iraq.
He also said the U.S. and its partners “will not provide international reconstruction assistance to any area under control of the Assad regime,” and called on all “stakeholders” to do the same, which is also absurd, since Russia and China, through the “win-win” policy of the New Silk Road, are already engaged in reconstruction and will expand it.
He also made clear that the U.S. believes that Assad must go, and that only a “post-Assad leadership” would function as a viable state. But he moderated that by stating clearly that the conflict in Syria would be resolved “through a UN-led political process prescribed in UNSC Resolution 2254,” which of course does not call for Assad to step down, but for the Syrian people to choose their own government. He also said that, while the U.S. hoped for Assad’s departure, “This process will take time, and we urge patience in the departure of Assad and the establishment of new leadership. Responsible change may not come as immediate as some hope for, but rather through an incremental process of constitutional reform, UN-supervised elections—but that change will come.”
Then, on the plane home, he made some very different remarks. Asked about Russia, he said that, “in terms of the Syrian end stage, we have had direct conversations with our Russian counterparts about what we want to see in the end, and we are very well aligned. We seek a whole and unified Syria. Notwithstanding the Russians from time to time alleging that we’re trying to divide Syria, we are not. We want a whole and unified Syria. We want a Syria that’s stable, that’s free of terrorism, and Russia has that same objective.”
As to whether the U.S. will engage in “regime change” military policies, Tillerson said: “No, we’ve been very clear that we’re not there to in any way engage with the regime. We’re not there to engage with Iran. We’re there to defeat ISIS.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
China Stocks, and Economy ‘Outperform’—Not So the West
Jan. 18 (EIRNS)—The German financial daily Börsen-Zeitung has a commentary on China’s economy which warns against failed forecasts from the West. If China’s economy were to be expressed in stocks of China, Inc., “analysts are well advised to rate them as ‘outperform,’ ” they write.
Now, the same economists in the West who had forecast a “cooling down” of the Chinese economy are playing down the current upswing as ephemeral.
However, the daily goes on, “they should not discredit themselves so early. Some of the factors that in the past year have put wind in the sails of the Chinese economy continue to display their driving power. This includes a reflation of producer prices, a quite dynamic foreign trade which relies on a lively global demand, as well as continuing dynamic consumer pattern. Also the Chinese real estate market, which some had considered to be a particularly dangerous disturbing factor, has not slowed down despite restrictive measures to reduce prices in metropoles, and should not be considered as a risk potential.”
As for the “trade war” which Trump is allegedly preparing against China—this is the mainstream media pitch overall—“From the erratic moods and verbal exchanges of the U.S. President, however, it is hardly possible to make hard forecasts on a [resulting] weak Chinese economic performance.”
Similarly, regular Bloomberg columnist Daniel Moss took note today of the “Big News from China: Its Implosion Didn’t Happen.” In fact, Moss wrote, “China has gone from a swing factor in the global economic order to something more like the rock underpinning the global outlook.... China puts experienced policy practitioners in charge, from the president’s office on down.... As a result, China is a source of stability, not a threat to it.”
Moss wryly added: “as one travels around the world and talks to policymakers, investors, and current and former officials, there is the unmistakable sense that China is on the rise and the West —well, ‘muddling through’ is probably a charitable way to put it.”
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Wang Yi Tells CELAC: Build the BRI, Take the ‘Express Train of China’s Development’
Jan. 21 (EIRNS)—The title of the China-CELAC Forum (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) which will begin tomorrow in Santiago, Chile, “Working for More Development, Innovation and Cooperation for Our People: A Common Destiny—the Belt and Road,” is most telling.
As China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi explained in an interview published today in the Chilean daily El Mercurio, the message China wants to transmit to the representatives of the 33 Latin American/Caribbean (LAC) nations attending the summit is this: “China is willing to continue considering [the LAC nations] as priority and important partners and deepen cooperation in the framework of the China-CELAC Forum, as well as joint construction of the Belt and Road, aiming for shared development and adhering to the principles of mutual respect and consultation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.”
After offering a detailed description of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its motives and global success, the number of countries participating, projects underway, financing, etc. Wang elaborated on the idea of the two regions jointly building the BRI.
First, he said, “as an intimate friend and great partner of Latin America and the Caribbean, it’s natural for China to want to see all the nations of the region participate in the process of jointly building the Belt and Road, so that they make take the next ‘express train’ of China’s development” (that is, develop as rapidly as China has) “and share the enormous opportunities, and dividends offered by this platform for global cooperation.” Secondly, he pointed out that despite the great geographical distance, the LAC region was part of the Maritime Silk Road historically, “and it is a natural extension of the current one.... It is our hope that more and more countries of Latin America and the Caribbean come to know and participate in the Belt and Road, to inject an even more energetic driver to the cooperation between China and the region, through the joint construction of this project....” He emphasized that China cooperates with all nations of the region, regardless of their political persuasion.
In Santiago today, the main activities consist of a meeting between Wang Yi and his Chilean counterpart Heraldo Munoz, followed by meetings between Wang Yi and Munoz with the four-nation CELAC leadership “quartet”—El Salvador, Guyana, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. Tomorrow, following a plenary session, the foreign ministers will issue an action plan for the next three years and hold a press conference.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
China Launches Its First Student Satellite, Along with Five Others
Jan. 19 (EIRNS)—China carried out its fourth launch in two weeks today, placing into orbit two commercial Earth observation satellites, and four small satellites, including one from Canada and one designed and built by primary and middle school students. The student satellite, classified as a nanosatellite, weighing 2 kilograms, was named after the late Premier Zhou Enlai. It was developed by 20 teenagers, Xinhua reports, who accompanied their satellite to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, and witnessed today’s lift-off. This is part of a recent push for outreach in the Chinese space program, to involve students, and new commercial enterprises.
The designer of the student satellite, Zhang Xiang, a professor at Nanjing University of Science and Engineering, described the satellites as like “a teacher in space.... Students can grasp the mystery of the universe through the messages transmitted by the ‘teacher.’ ”
“The satellite not only offers an opportunity for local teenagers to engage in such an aerospace project, but stimulates enthusiasm in space science among all students in the schools,” says Wang Qiming, of the Huai’an Youth Comprehensive Development Base, which was the main organizer of the project.
Five other small satellites were also launched, including Canada’s Kepler Communications satellite, and two satellites in the Jilin Earth observation series. These are manufactured by a commercial spin-off from the Changchun Institute of Optics, and China’s first indigenously developed remote sensing satellites for commercial use. Today’s launch was of the 7th and 8th satellites, and by 2019 the plan is to have 16 in orbit.
Small satellites can cheaply and quickly test new space technologies before investing in a full-sized and expensive commercial satellites. And they have created the opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience with designing and flying spacecraft.