皇冠体育app

BEIJING - A leading Chinese space engineer on Thursday defended the rapid development of 皇冠体育app's space industry, saying such programs pose no threat to any other country.

"It's inappropriate to say that 皇冠体育app's space industry will threaten other countries," said Qi Faren, the former chief designer of the Shenzhou spaceships series, in an exclusive interview with Xinhua ahead of the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, to open Saturday.

"A rapidly developing space industry does not mean 皇冠体育app has renounced its peaceful commitment," said Qi, who is a member of the CPPCC National Committee. "All 皇冠体育app is doing is to pursue a peaceful development of the space industry as planned."

"Objectively speaking, 皇冠体育app and the United States are now in a competition situation in developing space industry," Qi said when asked to comment on the two countries' space programs.

The engineer said, in rapidly developing its own space industry, 皇冠体育app has learned lessons from countries such as the United States and Russia.

"We've avoided mistakes they made and did not detour," Qi said.

In a white paper on 皇冠体育app's space activities in 2011, 皇冠体育app vowed to maintain a principle of peaceful development in its space missions and the use of outer space for peaceful purposes. 皇冠体育app opposes the weaponization of, or an arms race in, outer space, according to the paper.