News / Brèves Space / Espace Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente China Scholar Calls for Joint U.S.-China Exploration of Mars, And ’Win-Win-Win’ Cooperation with Ibero-America 28 March 2015 This full-circle scene combines 817 images taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) on Nasa’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the planet Mars, as seen in this handout image from NASA received by Reuters July 7, 2012. It shows the terrain that surrounded the rover while it was stationary for four months of work during its most recent Martian winter. Opportunity’s Pancam took the component images between the 2,811th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s Mars surface mission (Dec. 21, 2011) and Sol 2,947 (May 8, 2012). Opportunity spent those months on a northward sloped outcrop, "Greeley Haven," which angled the rover’s solar panels toward the sun low in the northern sky during southern hemisphere winter. The outcrop’s informal name is a tribute to Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), who was a member of the mission team and who taught generations of planetary scientists at Arizona State University, Tempe. The site is near the northern tip of the "Cape York" segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater.Picture: REUTERS/NASA EIRNS—In a presentation in Washington, D.C. on March 24, leading Chinese scholar Dr. Yuan Peng, Vice President of China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), cited joint U.S.-China exploration of Mars as one of multiple potential areas for "win-win" cooperation between the U.S. and China which should be taken up. In the discussion which followed, Dr. Yuan proposed three-way cooperation on developing the Western Hemisphere as another promising basis for U.S. and Chinese cooperation. Building "win-win-win" relations between Ibero-America, the United States, and China could prove a real test of the new model of the great power relations which China and the United States must develop for world peace, Dr. Yuan proposed. He suggested that Cuba could be a good starting place for developing such win-win-win triangular relations, now that the United States is normalizing its relations with Cuba. Dr. Yuan made this proposal during the March 24 Woodrow Wilson Centre forum on "China’s Foreign Policy in a New Era of Sino-Latin American Relations," in which he presented a succinct tour d’horizon of what drives China’s new global diplomacy, with its new doctrines and institutions (the BRICS, the AIIB, Silk Roads, etc.). Dr. Wu Hongying, Director of CICIR’s Institute of Latin American Studies, spoke there also, on China’s impressive growing trade, investment and industrial ties with Ibero-America, proposing work begin on integrating the American, Latin American, and Chinese dreams for mutual benefit. She frankly called, also, for the United States to revoke its sanctions against Venezuela, noting they hadn’t worked against Cuba, either. Dr. Yuan used the occasion to address the potentials and pitfalls of U.S.-Chinese relations today. Chinese President Xi Jinping has proposed that the United States and China develop a new model of great power relations, in order to avoid the historic trap of previous number-1 and number-2 power relations, which have led to tragedies, he said. The United States has been reluctant to accept this creative re-thinking, but it requires only three basic tenets: no conflict and no confrontation; a spirit and attitude of mutual respect, not for specific issues, but for each other; and "win-win cooperation." There are many potential areas to pursue in the latter regard, he said, naming three: cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, an area certainly big enough "for both the U.S. and China to play;" joint exploration of Mars;" and agreement on how to set new cyber-security standards. Asked how China’s increased interaction with Ibero-America affects China’s bilateral relationship with the United States, Dr. Yuan put forward the "win-win-win" proposal: Latin America is not America’s backyard; "it is a place where both the U.S. and China can invest more energy in the future of this region, so we can achieve win-win-win results," he answered. For example, normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations: China welcomes this outcome, and now, we are thinking how to achieve better U.S.-China relations, better U.S.-Cuba relations, and better China-Cuba relations. America can play a kind of bridge role in the future, and we can jointly help Cuba opening up and reform. If we are open-minded to thinking about this in this way, Latin America, which has no direct territorial conflicts with China, no historical disputes with China, and no ideological disputes with China, can become the real test for the new model of U.S.-China cooperation, he said. [ggs] A video of the forum here: