*This American emigre guy was probably never a Communist, but since he did know Jack Parsons in Pasadena, he may have taken part in weird Crowleyite sex rituals with
L. Ron Hubbard before creating the Chinese space program.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0911/02china/
(...)
"After earning his Ph.D. in 1939, Tsien joined the Caltech faculty."
"He was very impressed by people who could really perform at a high level," said Iris Chang, author of a Tsien biography titled Thread of the Silkworm. "He was very dismissive of those who couldn't make the cut."
Beyond the work of Robert Goddard in the 1930s, rocket research advanced in the U.S. under a group who sought help from Theodore von Karman at the California Institute of Technology.
The group, included Jack Parsons who would later form Aerojet Corp. and Tsien, who along with others involved were dubbed "the suicide squad" as they began rocket engine tests at Arroyo Seco northwest of Pasadena, Calif.. This planted the seeds for JPL to become preeminent in space and rocketry.
"The Army created a rocket-development branch in 1943, and the next year von Karman, Tsien and another colleague won a contract to design some of the first long-range ballistic missiles," says Cabbage.
At the end of World War II, Tsien was sent to Europe to debrief German rocket scientists for transfer to the U.S. And it was at one of these meetings that Tsien met Von Braun. Unbeknownst to either, the future head of China's space program was debriefing the future head of America's space program and the man that would land men on the Moon.
But lurking in Tsien's past was trouble that would get him sent back to China, never to return.
As Cabbage notes "to graduate student Tsien Hsue-shen, the gatherings at Sidney Weinbaum's California home seemed like typical American parties of the 1930s – not meetings of Professional Unit 122, Pasadena Section of the U.S. Communist Party."
"There were spirited political discussions, music, games and good conversation. The parties provided a needed break every few weeks from the academic grind endured by the 26-year-old aeronautics whiz and two dozen or so Caltech colleagues. Tsien came for the music. He was learning to play the flute," says Cabbage
"More than a decade later, those all-but-forgotten get-togethers would turn Tsien's life upside down," he said.
According to the Cabbage study, "The evidence presented against him during the deportation hearings was, to be charitable, underwhelming. No witness could say for sure whether Tsien had been a member of the Communist Party. There were no official party records connecting him to the group. The case hinged on a single membership list in the handwriting of police investigators, who claimed they had copied the names from other documents. Tsien steadfastly maintained his innocence.
"Nevertheless, immigration officials ruled Tsien had lied on the immigration form when he re-entered the country in 1947 and was a communist subject to expulsion. The government spent the next four years debating what to do with him. Finally, Tsien was notified in 1955 that he was going back to China. His departure was part of a negotiated swap of Chinese scientists in the United States for Americans captured during the Korean War and held in China.
In 1955, Tsien was allowed to return to China. "Five years of virtual house arrest had turned Tsien's American dream into a nightmare," says Cabbage.
Frustrated and increasingly bitter about his treatment, Tsien was more than ready to go. One can only imagine his resentment as he, his wife and their two small children – both U.S. citizens by birth – boarded a ship at Los Angeles harbor for the three-week trip to China. Before leaving, Tsien addressed the horde of reporters who packed the dock:
"I do not plan to come back. I have no reason to come back. I have thought about it for a long time. I plan to do my best to help the Chinese people build up their nation to where they can live with dignity and happiness."
"China fully understood the windfall it was getting," says Cabbage. "Tsien returned to a conquering hero's welcome. He spent the first few weeks touring the country and reaping accolades. Almost overnight, the government handed him the reins of China's fledgling aerospace and missile programs. He quickly went to work building the industry almost from scratch in a society still living with one foot in the Middle Ages.
"There were no research facilities. No modern manufacturing plants. Not even Chinese textbooks in many crucial subjects. More than anyone, Tsien changed that. Four months after his return, he founded Beijing's Institute of Mechanics, specializing in critical defense needs, including missiles, atomic energy, computers and electronics.
Those who worked for Tsien regarded him with almost religious awe," Cabbage says....
