Chinese rocketry and missile program without Tsien

[Color-Copycat]

If Tsien hadn't been deported from the US in the '50s, how much would development of Chinese rocket technology be delayed or slowed? From what I can gather, Tsien's experience at the JPL and his detailed investigation of the V-2 rocket program immediately after the Second World War pretty much put him leaps and bounds ahead of any other Chinese scientist available to the PRC during the first few decades of the Cold War. Would the absence of this single individual be enough to force the Chinese to rely on more Soviet expertise in regards to missile technology, thus stifling the early development of a domestic rocketry program?

 

[Sumeragi]

Yes. Let's face it: The US program was mostly a German-Chinese one, and while I do expect the US to be able to get a decent thing running without such help, the Chinese wouldn't be able to do much without Tsien.

 

[Color-Copycat]

So without access to decent rocket tech, would China be forced to seek a closer relationship with the USSR? The Sino-Soviet split was aided by China's access to domestically produced short and medium range missiles that could threaten the USSR's eastern population centers with nuclear warheads, after all. Without such a sure means of retaliation, they'd have to stay on friendlier terms, right?

 

[SAVORYapple]

So without access to decent rocket tech, would China be forced to seek a closer relationship with the USSR? The Sino-Soviet split was aided by China's access to domestically produced short and medium range missiles that could threaten the USSR's eastern population centers with nuclear warheads, after all. Without such a sure means of retaliation, they'd have to stay on friendlier terms, right?

maybe, but you have to admit Mao was downright crazy. He might not have cared!!!!

 

[Tyg]

I'd think the more immediate effects of Tsien not leaving for China would have been felt in the US. That such a brilliant mind was cast away so pointlessly is infuriatingly stupid.

 

[Color-Copycat]

I'd think the more immediate effects of Tsien not leaving for China would have been felt in the US. That such a brilliant mind was cast away so pointlessly is infuriatingly stupid.

I agree. If there was one more reason to despise the Red Scare, Tsien's deportation would have to be it.

But in regards to possible differences in the development of the US rocket program, are there any specifics that come immediately to mind?