China is aiming to replace all its imported communications and broadcast satellites with home-made ones by 2010 as part of efforts to reduce its reliance on overseas technology, state media said yesterday.
The nation will step up research and development of these satellites as just one out of the 12 currently in use is Chinese-made, Sun Laiyan, chief of the China National Space Administration, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying. “The rest were all bought from foreign companies,” said Sun, who is also vice minister of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry, at a conference on Sunday.
As China has become an economic powerhouse in recent decades, it has been intent on trying to phase out its use of overseas technology in a wide range of sectors for financial as well as national interest reasons.
(Source: AFP/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)