China holds open attitude towards space cooperation with US: spokesperson

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- China always holds an open attitude towards space cooperation with the United States, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday, urging the U.S. side to take practical measures to remove obstacles hindering cooperation in this filed.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a daily press briefing after NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Wednesday congratulated the success of China's Chang'e-6 mission. Nelson expressed the willingness to increase space dialogue and cooperation with China.

"Chang'e-6 completed the world's first sampling and takeoff on the far side of the moon, taking a historic step in the peaceful use of outer space by mankind," Mao said, noting that many countries have made positive comments about the mission, and China is grateful for the accomplishments.

The spokesperson said that China always holds an open attitude towards space exchanges and cooperation with the United States. She noted that the two sides had established mechanisms such as the working group on Earth science and space science cooperation, and the China-U.S. civil space dialogue mechanism, as well as a mechanism for the exchange of orbital data between the two countries' Mars probes.

"At present, there are some problems and difficulties in China-U.S. space cooperation, which are rooted in the U.S. domestic legislation such as the Wolf Amendment, which hinders normal exchanges and dialogue between the space agencies of the two countries," Mao said.

"If the United States sincerely hopes to promote exchanges and cooperation in the space field between the two countries, it should take practical measures to remove these obstacles," she noted.