林德宜：中国嫦娥六号引美国嫉妒

从媒体了解中国最新消息的读者只需查看《华盛顿邮报》关于中国嫦娥探月计划成功收集月球背面样本并返回的报道，即可了解《华盛顿邮报》对中国的偏见和歧视程度，以及许多其他西方新闻机构对中国的偏见报道。

中国的这项成就被许多国家的科学家称赞为历史性事件。例如，与中国同行合作成功完成任务的两名法国科学家，就提供了西方媒体报导中明显缺少的评论。

法国天体物理学和行星学研究所首席科学家，梅斯林（PIERRE-YVES MESLIN）教授表示，“我们多年来期待的这一时刻，在过去的几个月、几周和几天，我们更加强烈地期待著这一时刻。我们几乎每天晚上都在北京观看月亮，如今我们成功到达了（月亮）另一边，这实际上一切都很顺利，看起来一切都很完美。”

天文物理学和行星学研究所教授，西尔维斯特·莫里斯（SYLVESTRE MAURICE）指出，“登陆星球是很困难的。这非常困难，尤其是在月球上。不要以为这很容易。而我今天所看到的似乎绝对完美。他们降落在他们想要的地方。请记住这位于月球的背面。不是我们所能看到的月球表面。为此，他们甚至必须放置一个（鹊桥二号）中继卫星。所以，需要另一颗卫星来监视探测器著陆，因为我们看不到降陆。所以，这是一项相当大的成就，是我们多年来一直在寻找的东西。”

美国反应

人们原本预计，当年把尼尔·阿姆斯特朗和巴兹·奥尔德林于1969年7月20日在阿波罗登月舱鹰号下著陆月球，首次将人类送上月球的国家领导人和媒体会对中国的这项成就表示赞赏。他们必须意识到这对于促进人类太空探索进步的国际合作前景是非常重要。

但情况没有如预期般，反之出现了极大的逆转。美国政治领袖通常会对任何中国新闻迅速发表评论，但在此事上却异常沉默。大多数美国媒体都将该事件放在封底，或拒绝报道或提及该事件。

《华盛顿邮报》不负其口号

作为华盛顿权力精英的必读物──《华盛顿邮报》以一种反常的方式实践了其口号“民主在黑暗中消亡”，其不仅成功地将登月采样任务成功的消息排除在科技新闻之外。其还在嫦娥号成功返回内蒙古的前一天策略性地采访了美国宇航局，以妖魔化和更多地诽谤中国的航天成就。

在6月25日《华盛顿邮报》头条新闻中，《华盛顿邮报》登出了美国太空总署（NASA）首席行政官比尔·尼尔森的访谈，他声称美国原本计划要先于中国将宇航员送返月球表面。领导一个表现不佳的机构而面临压力的美国太空总署老大，除了夸夸其谈外，还指控中国的太空计划是秘密运作，并且是军方的一个部门。此外，也指控中国可能没有遵守“公认的太空行为准则”。可是，文章并没有提供任何证据来支持这些指控，也没有试图阐明美国政府版本的太空“公认规范”可能是什么。

这些美国和西方的行为规范，是美国及其西方和亚洲盟友为破坏中国发展并推翻中国政府而实施的“国际法治和秩序”和制裁的新兴组合一部分。我们也看到了制裁措施在科技、经济、商业、教育，甚至旅游业领域正不断加强。

《华盛顿邮报》的文章故意不点出，美国制定的与外太空探索相关的首要规范，就是美国国会于2011年通过的《沃尔夫修正案》。该立法禁止NASA在未经美国联邦调查局和美国国会明确授权情况下，使用政府资金与中国政府和中国附属组织进行直接的双边合作。

这项立法是由美国国内冷战鹰派推动的，他们将中国视为对美国全球领导地位的威胁，之后有关法案就被纳入“拨款法案”。该法令也许最显著和最明显的影响是，其被用来禁止中国太空人访问国际太空站或参与国际太空站的操作。目前，国际太空站接待了除中国以外的世界各国太空人。英国第15位皇家天文学家马丁·里斯爵士称这项禁令是“美国可悲的‘乌龙球’”。

中国太空计画政策

中国对美国排斥政策的回应，就是建立自己的太空站——天宫太空站，并对所有友好国家的太空人开放太空站的政策。显然，那些杀不死你的东西会让你变得更强大。这不言而喻的道理也适用于美国对华为、Tiktok和其他中国成功企业的制裁和其他惩罚行为上。

不同与美国执著于在所有国际活动中占据主导地位和第一的痴迷——包括西方媒体所宣传的“伟大的太空竞赛”，美国人将自己视为领跑者和领导者——中国则支持国际交流与合作，包括在月球探测上，多次主张以互利共赢、和平利用和共同开发外空。

6月27日，中国国家航天局副局长卞志刚表示，欢迎世界各地的科学家“共同对嫦娥六号探测器带回的月球岩石样本和数据进行科学研究”。在回答美国科学家是否愿意参与这项研究的提问时，卞氏说：“我相信他们愿意。”

他也指出，“如果美国想与中国进行正常的航天领域合作交流，我认为他们应该采取实际措施，消除限制合作的障碍”。他认为，障碍的根源……在于美国《沃尔夫修正案》等美国法律，阻碍了中美太空合作。

《华盛顿邮报》和其他西方以及亚洲媒体可透过不带恶意、不带任何隐藏议程地报道中国的航空计划，为读者做正确的事。他们还应鼓励美国白宫和国会与中国合作，确保美国太空计画的和平发展以及对行星系统的合作探索。

林德宜《中国嫦娥六号引美国嫉妒》原文：China’s Chang’e-6 Mission Success Arouses American Jealousy

Readers following the media for the latest news on China need only to check the coverage of the Washington Post on the Chang’e lunar programme success in collecting and returning to earth a much sought sample of the lunar surface to grasp the extent of prejudice and bias that the Post - and many other western news organisations - bring into their China reporting.

The Chinese achievement has been lauded by scientific experts from many countries as a historic event. As example, two French scientists who collaborated with their Chinese counterparts on the successful mission  provided these comments which are conspicuously missing from Western media reporting

PIERRE-YVES MESLIN, Chief Scientist, Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology "We have been thinking about this moment for years and even more intensely for the last few months and weeks and days. We were watching at the moon every night almost here in Beijing and now we are there on the far side. So actually, it went very smoothly and so it seems that everything went perfect."

SYLVESTRE MAURICE, Professor, Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology "It's hard to land on a planet. It's very hard, especially on the moon. Don't think it's easy. And what I've seen today seems to have worked absolutely perfectly. They are right. They landed right where they want it to. And remember it's on the far side of the moon. It's not the moon we can see the other side. And for that they had even to put a relay. So, there was another satellite to watch landing because we cannot see it. So, it's quite an achievement, something we've been looking for so many so many years."

US Deafening Silence on China’s Space Achievements 

One would expect that the leaders and media of the nation that flew the first human to the moon when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969 would applaud this China achievement. They must be aware of its importance in furthering the prospect of international collaboration for mankind to progress in our space exploration. 

But the opposite has taken place. From US political leaders usually quick to comment on any China news, there has been a deafening silence. From most of the US media, there has been a relegation of the event into the back pages or a refusal to include news or reference to it.  

Washington Post Lives Up to Its Tagline

Living up to its tag line Democracy Dies in Darkness in a perverse way, the Washington Post, essential reading for the power elite in DC, not only managed to keep the mission success news out of its science and technology news.  It also strategically ran an interview with NASA one day before the successful return of Chang’e to Inner Mongolia to demonise and cast more aspersions on China’s space achievements.

In its lead article on Space on 25 June, the paper featured NASA chief administrator, Bill Nelson, and his claim that the US was “on schedule” to return astronauts to the lunar surface ahead of China. Together with this predictable chest thumping by the NASA boss who is under pressure for his leadership of an underachieving agency, was included the allegation that China’s space program is operating secretly and is an arm of the military. Also that China may not be abiding “by accepted norms of behaviour in space”. No evidence was provided in the article to support the charges. Nor was there an attempt to spell out what the US government’s version of “accepted norms” in space may be.

These US and Western behaviour norms are part of the burgeoning concoction of ‘international rule of law and order’ and sanctions put in place by the United States and its western and Asian allies in their effort to derail China's development and bring down its government. We see these sanctions multiplying in technology, economy, business, education and even tourism.

The Post article conveniently failed to point out that first and foremost in US devised norms relating to outer space exploration is the Wolf Amendment passed by the US Congress in 2011. This legislation prohibits NASA  from using government funds to engage in direct, bilateral cooperation with the Chinese government and China-affiliated organisations without explicit authorization from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Congress. 

The legislation, driven by domestic cold war hawks targeting China as the existential threat to US global leadership, has been inserted into appropriation bills since then. Perhaps the most notable and glaring effect is that It has been used to ban China’s astronauts from visiting or taking part in operations on the International Space Station. For now, the station is host to astronauts from all countries of the world except for China. Sir Martin Rees, the fifteenth Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, has called the ban a "deplorable 'own goal' by the US".

China’s Space Programme Policy 

The Chinese response to the exclusion policy has been to put up its own space station, the Tiangong, and to implement a policy opening the space station to astronauts from all friendly countries. Clearly what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. This truism can be seen to also apply to US sanctions and other punitive acts aimed at Huawei, Tiktok and other Chinese successes.  

Unlike the US obsession to be dominant and first in all international activity - including in what western media has been broadcasting as the “great space race” which the Americans see themselves as the pace setter and leader - China has supported international exchange and cooperation, including in lunar exploration and repeatedly argued for the mutual benefit, peaceful use and common development of outer space.

On 27 June, Bian Zhigang, vice-administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said that scientists worldwide were encouraged “to jointly carry out scientific research on lunar samples and data”. In response to a question whether scientists from the US wanted to take part in that research, Bian said: “I believe they do.”

He also noted that  “if the US really wants to have normal space exchanges with China, I think they should take practical measures to remove obstacles” that limit cooperation. According to him, the root cause of the obstacles … lies in domestic laws such as the Wolf Amendment of the United States, which hinder Sino-US space cooperation.”

The Washington Post and other western as well as Asian media will be doing their readers the right thing by reporting China’s space programme without malice and without any hidden agenda. They should also encourage the White House and Congress to work with China to ensure the peaceful development of national space programmes and the collaborative exploration of our planetary system.