The company I work for and many others have large joint ventures with China. They are far beyond hot dog capitalism. Many Chinese cities are bustling centers of capitalism. It is mainly their government that is stilled mired in communist style beurocracy and tyranny. I am not comfortable with our government working with them until that changes.

I think a space race with them would be better as long is was not just another days to weeks style mission. A year and a half stay on Mars with continuous research is a first class science missiion not flags and footprints. Science expiditions to remote places on Earth are not considered flags and footprints just because they don't set up permanent settlemets at their research bases. Off course, any mission to Mars to study its geology and possible biology should also seek to test and develope technology for extended human stays and colonization. Maybe we could even set up a Mars LINEAR program to shut EP up.;-)

Regards,
Mark