Mission for the nation and the world

A sense of mission and responsibility for the nation and humanity must sound like a clich to some Chinese these days as materialism and hedonism prevail among sections of our society.

The death of prominent rocket scientist Qian Xuesen, or Tsien Hsue-shen, on Saturday is a solemn reminder of what is lacking in our country today.

Qian, who helped establish the Jet Propulsion Center in California in the 1940s, went through enormous hardship in the 1950s in his bid to return to the nascent People's Republic. He was arrested by the FBI in 1950, and charged with subversive activity during the McCarthy era in the United States.