Space BOMBSHELL: US deporting Chinese nuclear weapon scientist ‘stupidest thing ever' - Daily Express

The move was later condemned by Dan Kimball, formerly the US Secretary of the Navy, who described the expulsion as “the stupidest thing this country ever did”.

Qian Xuesen, a Chinese citizen, moved to the United States in 1935 to study at first the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then the California Institute of Technology.

He joined a group of American scientists, nicknamed the ‘suicide squad’ due to their recklessness, working to develop rockets.

During the second world war this group was working with the American military and Mr Qian joined the US government’s Science Advisory Board.

Mr Qian was suspected of US intelligence of having attended a meeting of the Pasadena Communist Party.

In 1950 Mr Qian was confronted by authorities and spent the next five years under house arrest until President Eisenbower decided to deport him back to China.

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Once back in China Mr Qian worked to become trusted by the new regime and in 1970 directed the launch of Dong Fang Hong I, Beijing’s first ever space satellite

Missiles he worked on also provided the basis for China’s nuclear arsenal, with the country successfully testing its first atomic bomb in October 1964

Fraser Macdonald, who wrote ‘Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket’, argued the expulsion of Mr Qian was a serious blow for the US

Mr Qian, who became known as “the people’s scientist”, became a national hero in China

China is currently locked in a new space race with the United States with both countries having plans to return humans to the Moon

In May China successfully launched its Long March 5B rocket which could eventually be used to take astronauts of lunar missions

First Beijing plans to construct a new Chinese space station by 2022

In 2019 China became the first country to reach the far side of the Moon using a rover