The Long March II-F rocket loaded with China's unmanned space module Tiangong-1 lifts off from the launch pad in the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu province, September 29, 2011. (Reuters)
China’s recent launch of a habitable space laboratory module has sparked a new round of speculations on forums dedicated to China’s military strength.
Tiangong-1 (天宫一号), which means Heaven Palace-1, was launched in China on September 29 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It is China’s first space lab module that has the capacity to carry humans.
The first “taikonaut” (中国宇航员) (Chinese astronaut) in orbit was in 2003, and the Yinghuo-1 (萤火一号), a Russian-Chinese robot probe to Mars, will be launched in 2013. Tiangong-1 is an ongoing effort in China’s space ambitions and the first step to building a successful space station.
Online, nationalistic forums dedicated to analyzing China’s military strength have been eagerly speculating on the launch’s significance. Those same forums were focused in July maiden voyage of on China’s first ever aircraft carrier.
Anti-cnn.com, founded in 2008 by a nationalistic student. The website, now renamed M4.cn, is a platform for nationalistic youth.
After the launch, huangzhongsong said:
“I support the development of manned spacecrafts. It’s not wasting resources. What is the waste of manpower and resources? It’s when the US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan!”
支持发展载人航天,什么叫劳民伤财？美国侵略伊拉克和阿富汗所花费的军费哪才叫劳民伤财！
Commenter qushichen wrote:
“China already missed out on the oceans. It cannot for anything miss out on the skies!” Hooray for Chinese scientists!
中国已经错过了海洋时代 决不能再错过太空 中国的科学家加油！！
Commenters see both the US and Russia as China’s competitors. User “tylz” wrote about why the States are perceived to be number one on the Yingshang government website’s forum:
“The States are running wild in the world, and openly showed contempt for international law. What are they relying on? The all-conquering, powerful weapons, or more specifically, 11 Carrier Battle Groups, the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, precise guided weapons, and the most advanced stealth fighters…“
美国能横行世界，公然蔑视国际法，依靠的是什么，是无坚不摧的强大武器，具体的说就是11个航母战斗群，是拥有世界上最大核武库以及将核武器投向敌人弹道导弹，是精确的制导武器，是最先进的隐形战机
Users on the military forum of the most popular web portal, Sina, also challenged the United States, “BrightTimesXi’an” said:
“The technology of this Tiangong-1 is more advanced than America’s space technology when they were doing this.”
这个天宫一号比美国当时的航天技术先进
On the popular “Flying Military” forum, user “zhenqianga” attracted two pages of comments when he outlined the benefits of developing a space program for a developing nation. However, “zhenqianga” was quick to point out that developing a space program had more nationalistic uses:
“Our nation has successfully launched the Tiangong preliminary space lab probe. There are huge numbers of Taiwan and Japanese internet devils trying to create public opinion by saying there are still many poor children that need to be fed. So money shouldn’t be spent on Tiangong or Shenzhou [spacecraft], right? This is an effort to misdirect public opinion.”
我国成功发射“天宫”初级太空站， 一时间有大批台日网鬼和民运造舆论说中国还有很多穷孩子需要钱的地方很多。不应把有限的钱花在天宫神舟上？ 这是在有意误导中国舆论。
