Qian Xuesen - Aviation Week & Space Technology Person of the Year

On January 6th Aviation Week & Space Technology announced their Person of the Year for 2007 and it was Qian Xuesen. Many of you would say, who?

Bradley Perrett of Aviation Week & Space Technology penned an excellent article on Qian Xuesen as the person of year and who else was considered.

Here's a couple of excerpts from the article:

"Nothing in aviation or space in 2007 represented a greater change in the status quo than China’s ascendancy to the first rank of space powers. China had proven its mettle four years earlier by becoming only the third member of the elite club of nations capable of flying humans in space. But in 2007, it accomplished two more feats, proving to the world that it’s a space player to be reckoned with across the board."

This opening statement reflects my opinion as well. For years I've beens saying that China would be a major space power and one that would we either work with or compete against.

So who is Qian Xuesen?

Once again from the article;

"The man who laid the foundation for these achievements is a brilliant scientist who worked for the U.S. military on advanced rocket projects in the 1940s and helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Then, in a remarkably short-sighted move, the U.S. sent this man back to China with all his skills and knowledge of American secrets. With McCarthyism in full bloom, the scientist was deported on dubious charges of being a Communist.

That man is Qian Xuesen. And he became the father of the Chinese space program."

What are your thoughts on the current state of the Chinese space program and the west's relationship with the Chinese?