> This fixation on the moon in a country with > stark poverty for most of its rural majority > is a sign of China's tyrannical government. Isn't this e

> This fixation on the moon in a country with > stark poverty for most of its rural majority > is a sign of China's tyrannical government. Isn't this exactly the same as the often repeated argument (in various forms) of "why are we spending money on space when we have cancer/poverty/other social issues/etc.". I don't have the intimate knowledge on China that you do, nor do I agree with its government, but it's a country that's moving so fast to being industrialized that it has some parts that are effectively in the early 20th century, and some that are as high-tech as you can get. Don't you think China spending a relatively minuscule part of its resources on developing high-tech industries is likely to do its part in developing these rural areas that you're concerned about in the long term? As for the short term surely China is also working on those issues.