Unlike the International Space Station (ISS), which excludes China from participating in its activities, China's future space station will offer foreign scientists opportunities to carry out their research, in an effort to push mankind deeper into outer space than ever before.
"China might be the only country that will run a space station in the foreseeable future. We could invite other nations to carry out experiments on [our] space station, making it an international scientific platform for all humankind," Bai Mingsheng, chief designer of China's first cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-1, told China Central Television.
As the only space station in service, ISS will remain in service at least through 2024. Once it retires, however, China could be the only nation with a functional space station, which is expected to start operating in 2020.
The welcoming gesture has attracted many countries to ink space cooperation agreements with China. According to a Russia News Today's report in September, Russian scientists have already applied to conduct three scientific experiments on China's future space station, while the Russian Federation Space Agency and the European Space Agency have already shown interest in future space cooperation with China.
Though China is a latecomer to space exploration, it has made great progress in aerospace research over the past several decades, despite so-called security concerns voiced by the U.S. side, which have prevented China from participating in the ISS program.
China's space station boasts several platforms for cooperation with scientists from other nations. China is willing to carry out international communication about the development of equipment, joint training, and other space concerns, according to Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut.
