On October 15, 2003, at 9:00 AM Beijing time, the People's Republic of China became the third nation in history to send a human into orbit. The "taikonaut," Lt. Col. Yang Liwei, landed the inaugural flight just over 21 hours later and immediately became a national hero. However, there are many in the United States who look suspiciously at China's accomplishment, fearing that China's developing space technology is being used for military reconnaissance. The US Department of Defense annual report on "Military Power of the People's Republic of China" in 2002 concludes that this manned spaceflight could eventually aid Chinese military space capabilities and further its development of direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons, US navigational satellite signal jamming technology, and ground-based laser systems. However, when this remarkable achievement for China is considered in a broader context of political relations, it is clear that the United States should now shrug off its Cold War mentality in favor of more optimistic US-China relations.