China's Chang'e-6 space mission recently returned with the very first lunar samples that could contribute much to the study of the cosmic body. The mission was named after a Moon goddess from Chinese mythology.
The only nation to hesitate to partake in the joint research was the US, all because of the Wolf Amendment that restricts US-China space cooperation.
The amendment can be seen as an attempt to undermine the soaring growth of China’s space exploration program.
For the past years, China has achieved much in space exploration. For example, the country has enhanced the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, fully assembled the Tiangong space station, the Tianwen-1 probe successfully landed on Mars, and, the most recently, the Chang'e-6 brought back 1,935.3 grams of lunar rock.
“It's [the amendment] almost propelled them [China] to make their own programs and missions to rival those in the US,” Makena Young, a fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at the American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, commented on China’s progress in the area.
In a way, the Wolf Amendment is an extension of the harsh anti-Chinese sentiment prevalent in the US political establishment. It is hardly beneficial for US space efforts, and directly harms global space exploration efforts as a whole, experts stressed.
“The Wolf Amendment has really handcuffed earth sciences here at Langley. I've been told not to even answer emails from Chinese domains. From this perspective, the Wolf Amendment has stopped much earth science work from ever getting started,” said Greg Schuster, a research scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center.
He was echoed by Marco Aliberti, a senior research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute.
"You cannot build an effective solution for a global space governance without China participating in it," he underscored.