The Daily Mail reported on January 25 that all Chinese citizens are banned from flying on Virgin Galactic. The reason is that the engines used in the spaceships are classified as military technology by the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations and therefore citizens from China, Iran and North Korea are banned from participating in flights under a law made during the Cold War.
The fear, as underlined by the law, is that citizens from these countries might try to steal the technology. We think it might be time for new laws to be implemented as the old ones seem a little out of date. Virgin is also shutting its doors to a potentially massive clientele by not allowing Chinese nationals onboard.
Source: huanqiu.com
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Keywords: Chinese Nationals Banned From Virgin Galactic Flights
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They should be more afraid of Chinese misbehaving during the flight, such as smoking, taking a dump in the middle of the alleyway or trying to open the windows while in space to take a photo, considering how dumb and selfish are the Mainlanders.
Mar 05, 2014 17:48 Report Abuse
How much could a passenger possibly learn about the technology just from flying in the plane? Technology theft is still a concern, but I think the West has learned a lot since the cold war. It isn't a technology or wealth gap that is holding China back - they've caught up a lot with little realistic improvement. It's about values, principles, interaction... culture. Once Chinese actually display a willingness to improve their own culture, then the West should be scared. It can happen, but no signs of it at the moment.
Jan 28, 2014 12:17 Report Abuse
You would be surprised by what a passenger can gather. Discretely scratching various parts of the plane can gather minute amount of materials under the nails. Even very small samples gathered that way can tell you which materials are used in various parts. For a suborbital plane, the trajectory is of uttermost important and is very telling of the performances of the engines. A phone enhanced with precision accelerometers & gyroscopes is all it gets to gather precise trajectory infos. If you wonder how Russians cloned the Concorde back in the days, that's how ^^
Jan 29, 2014 10:53 Report Abuse
They've already ripped off the technology... might as well let them ride.
Jan 28, 2014 11:05 Report Abuse
Are you kidding? Yes you are. The Daily Mail is a piece of yellow "journalistic" shit akin to the National Enquirer in the United States. I.e. pure crap. I have it on good stead that Chinese citizens are banned from such flights not because they want to steal the technology. but because they urinate in the galley, defecate in the aisles, smoke in their seats, scream and shout bloody murder at one another and when all other passengers are sleeping. It's not about techno-piracy. It's about uncouth behaviour and the manners of pigs.
Jan 27, 2014 20:38 Report Abuse
"Hurr durr the Daily Mail wrote it so it must be fake!" Please you are probably the type that would say the same about Fox News in the States Do yourself a favor and crawl back into that leftist hole you came out of and leave the rest of the world alone
Feb 04, 2014 13:19 Report Abuse
I'm sure China will rip-off the technology whether they're allowed on the flights or not.
Jan 27, 2014 18:13 Report Abuse
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