From the New York Times:
The leader of NASA arrives in China on Sunday for a tour of space agency sites, making him the most senior American space official to go to China to discuss possible cooperation between the countries’ programs.
Michael D. Griffin, the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, has repeatedly cautioned that the tour, which will include Beijing, Shanghai and a desert launching site in Gansu Province, will be an exploratory visit that will not result in any bilateral space agreements or formal partnerships.
“There has been a policy decision by the Bush White House to do this,” said John Logsdon, the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. “It’s part of an effort to engage China, to open a dialogue that may influence their policies in other areas. But it’s starting slowly and deliberately.” [Full Text]
Also see space.com’s U.S.-China Cooperation: The Great Space Debate
