The announcement of a Sino-Russian mission to Mars in 2009 is further proof of China's burgeoning technological prowess. But while such an achievement is something to be proud of, Beijing must temper such developments with caution to avoid a space race with the US and other competitors exploring the solar system.
Venturing into space is a multi-faceted enterprise, after all; apart from instilling national pride and being for the purposes of peaceful inquiry, it also is costly and has an unavoidable military dimension. Rockets and satellites serve dual purposes in this regard and arouse suspicion, just as they did when they were central to the cold war space race between the US and the Soviet Union.
While the two superpowers drove one another to ever greater heights in exploring space for a quarter-century, they also came ever closer to war as their technological breakthroughs translated into military developments. China must tread carefully to avoid a recurrence of this fearful period in world history.
This does not mean that China's scientists should refrain from building upon their already momentous achievements. In 2003, China became only the third nation - after the US and Soviet Union - to put a person in space and the feat was repeated the following year. There are now plans to put a Chinese astronaut on the moon and develop and launch a space station.
The deal President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed in Moscow on Monday to co-operate on the mission to Mars and its moon Phobos will cement China's membership of the exclusive club of space-exploring nations. But the deal also will spur rivalries in space. As proof of this, in January 2004 US President George W. Bush launched a new vision for his country's space programme, with plans to put an astronaut on Mars and to return to the moon - just three months after Yang Liwei became the first Chinese person in space. Japan and the European Union also have been stepping up their space research, budgeting billions of dollars for new rocket and equipment designs. India says it will launch an unmanned mission to the moon next year.
A major driving force of the cold war space race was a lack of openness between the Americans and Soviets. There were shades of a return to that era in January when Beijing secretly tested a ballistic missile by blowing up an old satellite, scattering debris that had the potential to damage other satellites. The central government was roundly condemned by the US, Japan and others for carrying out the test. It initially remained silent, but after two weeks admitted carrying it out - behaviour that has to be avoided for the sake of global stability. The US, however, stands accused of hypocrisy because - unlike China and Russia - it refuses to support an international agreement banning the deployment of weapons in space.