China’s space agency announced it would allow scientists from the US and allied nations to analyse lunar rocks retrieved by its Chang’e missions.
The agency listed Brown University and State University of New York at Stony Brook, both recipients of Nasa funding, among the seven institutions granted permission to borrow lunar samples that China collected from the moon in 2020.
Shan Zhongde, head of the China National Space Administration, said on Thursday that the lunar samples were “a shared treasure for all humanity”.
The agency would “maintain an increasingly active and open stance” in international space exchange and cooperation, he was quoted as saying by local media. “I believe China’s circle of friends in space will continue to grow.”
Chinese researchers, in contrast, have been unable to access Nasa’s Moon samples due to restrictions imposed by American lawmakers on their space agency’s collaboration with China.
The University of Cologne in Germany, Osaka University in Japan, the Open University in the UK, the Paris Institute of Planetary Physics, and the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission of Pakistan would receive the Chinese samples as well.
The Chinese agency had received requests to borrow the moon rocks from 11 nations, Mr Shan said. “China’s lunar exploration programme has always adhered to the principles of equality, mutual benefit, peaceful use, and win-win cooperation, sharing development achievements with the international community,” he said.
“We look forward to scientists worldwide making more scientific discoveries, jointly expanding human knowledge and benefiting all of humanity.”
In 2020, China’s uncrewed Chang’e 5 mission made it the third country, after the Soviet Union and the US, to collect rocks from the Moon. In June last year, the Chang’e 6 mission became the first to retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon.
In October last year, Nasa chief Bill Nelson told Reuters American and Chinese space agencies were negotiating the terms of Beijing’s loan agreement for the Chang’e 5 moon rocks, after reassuring American lawmakers that the discussions would not raise national security concerns.
“It seems the United States is quite closed off now despite being open in the past, while we were closed off in the past and are now open; this is because of the increase in our nation’s overall strength and consequent rise in self-confidence,” Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s lunar exploration programme, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday, adding that growing US “isolationism” would not help its space ambitions.
He said China followed an open space diplomacy policy, unlike the US, and was open to collaborate on lunar exploration with both developing and developed nations.
The loaning of Moon rocks, observers noted, highlighted ongoing cooperation in space despite broader geopolitical tensions escalating after US president Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping tariffs on China earlier this month.
The US imposed tariffs of up to 245 per cent on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliated with 125 per cent tariffs on US products.
Although Mr Trump has since suggested a possible de-escalation in the trade war, Beijing has denied any ongoing negotiations between the two sides.
Meanwhile, US laws and security concerns will require Nasa to work with the FBI for any future sample deliveries.
