Chinese Journalists Barred From Shuttle Launch

[Kablooie]

Chinese journalists were denied access to this week's space shuttle launch in what is believed to be the first application of a congressional ban on interactions between NASA and the Chinese government.

The 16 May launch of the Endeavor was a big news story for China because its scientific payload, the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, was built in part by Chinese scientists. But journalists seeking to cover the event—the penultimate flight before the shuttle fleet is retired—weren't allowed into the Kennedy Space Center.

A NASA spokesperson says the agency was simply following instructions in last month's 2011 spending bill that averted a government-wide shutdown. The legislation prohibits NASA from using any resources to host visits by a Chinese official to any NASA facility as well as for collaborations with any Chinese government entity. The Chinese journalists work for Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, and thus are considered government employees.

The language was written by Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA), chair of a House of Representatives spending panel that oversees NASA's budget. Wolf is a vocal critic of China's human rights record and what he believes are government-sanctioned cyberattacks on U.S. institutions and businesses.

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/05/chinese-journalists-barred-from.html?rss=1

http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/04/spending-bill-prohibits-us-china.html

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WTF?

[Drale]

1. Its a joke for any Republican to talk about other countries human rights records.

Especially when they are currently trying to kill the poor and the old.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

2. Good jobs, Repigs. You just slapped our banker in the mouth.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Disturbingly stupid, stupid, stupid. n/t

[DetlefK]

4. What do you think are they going to do with the snapshots?

Of course they will copy as much of the NASA's technology as they can!

Have you ever seen them at a car trade show? They get out their rulers and measure literally EVERYTHING on the cars, so they can produce plagiarized spare parts.

Nothing says "friendship" like hacking attacks.

And just because the USA is on a downward spiral on human rights, that doesn't give permission to ignore China's horrible record.
Imagine, your wife goes to prison because she publicly criticized a politician. (Disturbing public peace, threatening the integrity of the state, defamation or whatever ...) Will life go on for you? No. Hired thugs working for some secret government agency will harass you every time you leave your house.
Future chinese lawyers are drilled in Law School, that the will of the party trumps the rule of law. And the judges apply what they learned.

[Ghost Dog]

5. Journalists covering a launch don't need to get anywhere near

any, um, sensitive tech.

We all need to learn to share this planet, peacefully.

[Posteritatis]

9. You do know there's kind of a lot of shuttle photography already out there, right? (nt)

[parkia00]

10. You worried they will measure the shuttle?

Would take heaps of measure tape! You worried they would plagiarize the shape and design element of the shuttle for their own? Of course one would also have to consider that the appearance and the look of the shuttle must be a closely guarded national secret known only to a few good men. Maybe it's the super secret Made In China Mega X-Ray Info Sucking Device that Chinese journalist carry around to suck in and steal all the information needed from whatever the device is pointed at. Yeah... must be that. Better not have those journalist anywhere near anything!

[Duppers]

11. gads! you don't know what you're talking about.

nt

[Downtown Hound]

6. The Chinese already hacked the Pentagon and cleaned it out

What the hell is NASA so afraid of that it's afraid of a few journalists taking pictures from thousands of feet away?

[gtar100]

7. Oh, it was written by a Republican. Now it all makes sense.

The party of morons writes another moronic rule devoid of human understanding.

[caraher]

8. Stupid stupid stupid

Words fail me...