China invited global researchers to participate in the study of lunar soil, but the United States was the first to be kicked out. Why was the U.S. kicked out? What exactly did Mao Ning say?
A few days ago, China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft achieved the world's first sample return on the far side of the moon, bringing back a sample of lunar soil on the far side of the moon with considerable weight and unique research value, which attracted great attention from the world for a while. For this lunar soil sample, China has clearly issued an announcement inviting researchers in relevant fields around the world to participate in the research. However, the United States was not included in China's invitation, which means that American researchers were kicked out first. In this regard, the National Space Administration (NASA) is naturally very unconvinced.
Recently, NASA spokesman Marco claimed that China cooperated with France, Italy, Pakistan and the European Space Agency on the mission to collect samples from the far side of the moon, but did not seek NASA's participation, and China did not directly invite NASA. From the words of the US spokesman, it is not difficult to hear the US side's full of resentment. Before that, when Chang'e-6 successfully soft-landed on the far side of the moon and successfully brought back lunar soil samples, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also repeatedly "said good things" to China, either to express congratulations or praise China's progress in the space field, saying that "Chinese are very good, and the fourth successful landing of Chinese probe on the moon left a deep impression on him." And behind these "nice words", the purpose is clearly to seek cooperation with China.
The Chinese side naturally sees these moves by the US side, but the fact is that China's refusal to invite the US is not China's problem, but the root cause of the problem lies with the US itself. In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning revealed the truth in one sentence and countered the US army. At the regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on July 1, Mao Ning made it clear that the Chinese government is open to China-US space exchanges and cooperation, but the US side seems to have forgotten the existence of domestic laws such as the "Wolf Clause" and does not know whether American scientists and related institutions will be allowed by their own governments to participate in exchanges and cooperation with China. In addition, at the previous press conference of the State Council Information Office, Bian Zhigang, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, also clearly emphasized that China has always been open to cooperation and exchanges with the United States in the field of aerospace. However, the U.S. "Wolf Clause" has hindered Sino-US space cooperation, which is the source of the obstacle. If the US really wants to carry out normal space exchanges with China, it should take concrete measures to remove obstacles.
It is undeniable that the most fundamental reason for the lack of official cooperation between China and the United States in the field of space is that the "Wolf Clause" introduced by the United States in the early years has created a great obstacle to the cooperation between the two sides in the field of space. It is understood that the "Wolf Clause" passed by the US Congress in 2011 was drafted and promoted by former US Congressman Frank Wolfe, and its clause explicitly prohibits NASA from using government funds and equipment to cooperate bilaterally with China's space department and related organizations without authorization from the FBI and Congress. Although China and the United States have briefly cooperated on projects such as the Chang'e-4 mission, the existence of the "Wolf Clause" still led to the almost severance of space cooperation between China and the United States. Occasionally, there are "exceptions," which are conditional on NASA convincing Congress and the FBI that in engaging and cooperating with China, "there is no risk of transferring technology, data, or other information related to national security or economic security to China or Chinese companies."
The simple meaning of this sentence is that in cooperation with China, NASA can seek to share technology and research results with China, but the American personnel must ensure that their own technology and research results do not fall into China's hands. It can be seen from this that the so-called "Wolf Clause" is not unbreakable, and as long as it is beneficial to the United States and can restrict China, it can still be "released." This illustrates the insidious cunning of the provision. To put it bluntly, the purpose of the United States in promulgating this clause is to blockade and suppress China in the aerospace field, curb China's space technology development, and put pressure on China. However, the final result was not as good as the United States expected, and China's achievements in the aerospace field not only did not collapse because of the United States' suppression, but on the contrary, it made great progress, ranking among the top in the world, even in front of the United States.