Space place to found a community not a colony

The crew of Shenzhou XIX spacecraft transferred the keys of the Tiangong space station to the Shenzhou XX crew at a handover ceremony on Sunday. The Shenzhou XIX crew has now completed all planned tasks. The three astronauts are expected to take the Shenzhou XIX spacecraft and return to a planned landing site at the scheduled time.

That marks another step forward in China building its space station, which, after receiving different batches of Chinese astronauts over the past years, will welcome its first ever foreign astronaut in the near future.

In late February, China and Pakistan signed a cooperation agreement to select and train Pakistani astronauts for future flight missions to the Tiangong space station, opening a new chapter in deepening cooperation in the manned space sector between the two countries. This is the first time China has signed such an agreement to train foreign astronauts to participate in its space station flight missions, a substantial breakthrough in China's international cooperation in major space programs.

Although the United States tries to peddle the "China threat" theory to smear the country's space exploration, the world sees a different picture. China is willing to deepen its cooperation and exchanges with other countries to advance space exploration and the peaceful use of outer space and to make better use of space technology for the interests of all people around the world. It is Washington that sees space as a new arena for geopolitical games and a first-come-first-served virgin land that the US must colonize to meet its own narrow ends.

China's vision of lowering the "threshold" for developing countries to enter and explore space is also a manifestation of the country fulfilling its international obligations as a major spacefaring nation that is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind. China remains open to cooperation with other countries, including the US, for the peaceful exploration of space.