It’s predictable as clockwork. Whenever space policy raises itself to public awareness, one can always count on someone to warn us about the lessons of the Ming Dynasty. This time, Orville Schell does it in the WaPo.

As usual, the talk is about “space exploration” (as though that’s the only purpose to send people into space, and as though the Shuttle and ISS have much to do with “exploration”). Once again, the great tragedy and decline of China is discussed as though it was caused by the ending of the treasure fleets, rather than the latter being simply the symptom of much deeper problems, and largely a waste of money, anyway.

For new readers, my thoughts on Zheng He and the analogy with space exploration can be found here.

[Via Thomas James]