A view of the Taiwan Straits is seen from Xiamen port in East China's Fujian Province. Photo: IC

Certain Taiwan media outlets on Thursday reported and touted a bill on space cooperation between the Taiwan region and the US that had passed the US Senate Commerce Committee.  

However, the proposal has drawn sarcasm from some netizens on the island. A Chinese mainland expert said that the US is unlikely to genuinely share advanced technologies in this field with the island of Taiwan, noting that the bill has become a political card for both DPP and some US politicians for political gains.

US Senators Eric Schmitt, Tammy Duckworth, and Michael Bennet claimed on Wednesday local time that the bipartisan "Taiwan and American Space Assistance Act (TASA)" passed out of the Commerce Committee and will now head to the Senate floor, according to a press release published on the official website of Senator Schmitt. 

It also claimed that the so-called TASA helps the US counter so-called threats from China and addresses current gaps in NASA's ability to cooperate with the Taiwan region's space efforts, including satellite programs, space exploration initiatives, and atmospheric and weather research.

Aside from the press release, as of press time, Global Times reporters did not find coverage of the issue in mainstream media in the US. 

Meanwhile, certain pro-DPP media outlets have run reports highlighting that the act "allows exchanges of personnel from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to carry out cooperation in Taiwan."

For example, Taiwan local media outlet CNA, claimed in a report on Thursday that the bill would expand island's cooperation with NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and provide channels for personnel from the two US agencies to voluntarily travel to Taiwan island's space agency "to further enhance" the island's space capability.

In the final paragraph, the report noted that the bill must still pass the full US Senate and House of Representatives and be signed by the president before it can take effect. The House version was approved by the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in early February and will next proceed to a full House vote.

In February, some Taiwan regional media outlets had already hyped the bill. Some netizens on the island criticized it as another "daydream". 

For example, a netizen named "Feixue" commented, "So what? Are we going to pay for US astronaut again?" Another netizen, "@Julia-cd7ui", said that "DPP supporters are getting excited again, so does this mean Taiwan is going to hand out money in aid once more?" 

The DPP authorities have long sought to boost island's space industry and broad military sector, through so-called "cooperation" with the US. However, the US is unlikely to genuinely share advanced technologies in this field with the island of Taiwan, let alone hand over critical high-end technologies to the region. "Even if NASA personnel visit the island for exchanges in the future, their role could in practice resemble that of brokers for the US defense industry seeking to profit from the island," Zheng Jian, a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

While the US has reportedly delayed announcing a package of arms sales to Taiwan island, certain US politicians' recent push for a space cooperation bill may also serve as a gesture to appease the DPP authorities, said Zheng.

According to a report from The New York Times in February, the US administration has delayed announcing a package of arms sales to the island of Taiwan worth billions of dollars. The weapons sale, which includes air-defense missiles, was in an advanced stage. 

Moreover, given the island's limited scale and resources, building a space system capable of countering the mainland is highly unrealistic—a fact the DPP authorities are well aware of, said Zheng, noting that like many other Taiwan-related bills introduced in Washington, the space bill has become a political card for both sides: the DPP uses it for political maneuvering and extracting money on the island, while some US politicians use it to secure enormous profits for US defense contractors and political gains for themselves.