posted 10-31-2009 12:03 PM               

China's keystone space scientist Qian Xuesen, widely acclaimed as the country's "father of space technology" and "king of rocketry", died of illness here Saturday morning at the age of 98.

In 1956, based on Qian's position paper on the country's defense and aviation industry, the central government set up an aviation industry committee, which later became the leading organization for China's missile and aviation programs.

Under the guidance of Qian, also known as Tsien Hsue-shen, China finished the blueprint on developing jet and rocket technology. He also played a significant role in developing the country's first artificial earth satellite.

posted 10-31-2009 01:20 PM               

In 1943, Tsien and two others in the Caltech rocketry group drafted the first document to use the name Jet Propulsion Laboratory; it was a proposal to the Army to develop missiles in response to Germany's V-2 rocket. This led to the Private A, which flew in 1944, and later the Corporal, the WAC Corporal, etc.

During the Second World War, he was amongst many scientists who participated in the "Manhattan Project".

After World War II he served under von Karman as a consultant to the United States Army Air Force, and was eventually given the "assimilated rank of colonel". Von Karman and Tsien were sent by the Army to Germany to investigate the progress of wartime aerodynamics research. Tsien investigated research facilities and interviewed German scientists such as Wernher von Braun and Rudolph Hermann. Von Karman wrote of Tsien, "At the age of 36, he was an undisputed genius whose work was providing an enormous impetus to advances in high-speed aerodynamics and jet propulsion."

During this time, Colonel Tsien worked on a designing an intercontinental space plane Tsien Space Plane 1949. His work would inspire the X-20 Dyna-Soar which would later be the inspiration for the Space Shuttle.

posted 10-31-2009 04:44 PM               

The fact that he was kept under "house arrest" in the US for five years (to try to prevent what he had in his head falling into Chinese hands if he returned home) only adds insult to injury.

posted 11-01-2009 04:09 AM               

There is still no intelligence that his loyalties were anywhere else but with his academic colleagues at Caltech.

That he then became a "card carrying member of the Chinese Communist Party" on his return, in totalitarian systems you often don't have much of a choice.

posted 11-01-2009 08:44 AM               

He was the founding director of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center at Caltech and a member of the university’s so-called Suicide Squad of rocket experimenters who laid the groundwork for testing done by JPL.

But his brilliant career in the United States came to a screeching halt in 1950, when the FBI accused him of being a member of a subversive organization. Qian packed up eight crates of belongings and set off for Shanghai, saying he and his wife and two young children wanted to visit his aging parents back home. Federal agents seized the containers, which they claimed contained classified materials, and arrested him on suspicion of subversive activity.

Qian denied any Communist leanings, rejected the accusation that he was trying to spirit away secret information and initially fought deportation. He later changed course, however, and sought to return to China.

posted 10-27-2020 08:42 AM            

In Shanghai there is an entire museum containing 70,000 artefacts dedicated to one man, "the people's scientist" Qian Xuesen.

Qian is the father of China's missile and space programme. His research helped develop the rockets that fired China's first satellite into space, and missiles that became part of its nuclear arsenal, and he is revered as a national hero.

But in another superpower, where he studied and worked for more than a decade, his significant contributions are rarely remembered at all.

posted 10-27-2020 09:07 AM            

But his brilliant career in the United States came to a screeching halt in 1950, when the FBI accused him of being a member of a subversive organization.

posted 10-27-2020 01:36 PM               

...Malina was just one of the thousands of wrongly accused Americans ensnared by the Red Scare of the early 1950s. The indictment against him was dismissed in 1954, and his passport was restored four years later.

posted 10-27-2020 05:13 PM               

Federal agents seized eight packing cases which Dr. Tsien was shipping to himself in Shanghai. The government later said there was no secret material in the boxes.

posted 10-28-2020 03:13 AM            

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Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
There is a long record of Chinese nationals engaging in economic, industrial and national security espionage...

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quote:

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He had classified documents in his possession...

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The classic excuse of last resort: something else may not be in the public domain so let's just trust them. No, we know enough about their behaviour to know they can't be trusted. Anyway, lets keep the discussion to what can be discussed, because equally, there may be something still classified and extremely embarrassing to the government.

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If Xuesen had altruistic intentions he could have gone elsewhere and/or applied his talents towards peaceful purposes.

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posted 10-28-2020 08:21 AM               

His conduct and the general circumstances surrounding Qian's life, employment, affiliations, access to highly sensitive materials complied with a pattern that raised the index of suspicion and served as a predicate for surveilling and ultimately detaining Qian. This was at a time when the US had been burned by a number of other high level spying incidents (remember the Rosenbergs?).

The materials in his possession when classified become government property and subject to national security restrictions for storage, handling, protection (regardless of who produced them). Qian violated his agreement to abide by those policies.

posted 10-28-2020 10:08 AM            

As reported by newspapers at the time, the materials in his possession were not classified meaning he violated nothing. As for the Rosenbergs, I fail to see the connection. Their profile was completely different, and, as a couple, there is no doubt about their guilt of espionage.

Claiming that the term "racism" is being used to to shut down discourse is a poor defence when the discussion is not being stopped.

Was it racism that started the rumours about him? Quite possibly. Was it paranoia? Certainly. At root I think it was simply a lack of imagination that led to the impasse. He wasn't an American (he wasn't a citizen of the PRC either since it didn't exist when he emigrated). He had helped create the atomic bomb to end WWII, but the politicians and generals had other ideas. Like many other scientists, he didn't much like them. The government got unhappy when he refused to create weapons that could be used to attack his homeland. Put simply, they were fools for putting him in that position. It would have been one thing if he'd offered, quite another to try and force him.

On top of that, recall that there were senior Americans advocating the first use of nuclear weapons. Hardly peace loving. So if he was altruistic — your word, and perhaps he was, perhaps he should have done exactly what he did. Go home, get a deterrent (if it's good enough for the USA and USSR, it's good enough for China), and stop hot heads in the USA wiping out his homeland. Now I'm not saying that was his original intention, but after America made him unwelcome, can't you see how that could easily follow?

posted 10-28-2020 03:22 PM            

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Originally posted by David C:
I can't see that the long term outcome of this episode's handling was good for the USA.

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