Studying Zheng He and the reasons for China's deliberate withdrawal from exploration and the outer world seem particularly relevent at this time, especially in

Studying Zheng He and the reasons for China's deliberate withdrawal from exploration and the outer world seem particularly relevent at this time, especially in the USA. The USA is apparently giving up on manned space flight, we haven't put a human outside earth orbit since 1972, and we're trying to lock down the current economic status quo with copyrights, patents, and "intellectual property". The USA, or at least its current economic elite, has given up on the future.