When the space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on the program's final voyage, Chinese officials will not be among the invited guests at Kennedy Space Center.

Congress's newly enacted "Wolf Clause" bars NASA from hosting "official Chinese visitors" and restricts space agencies from working with that country.

Specifically, agencies are not allowed to "develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company.”

Enforcing the clause during the launch of Endeavor last month, NASA turned away two reporters from the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

"I think the Chinese are shocked,” said a staffer for Rep. Frank Wolf, chairman of the House Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee and author of the clause.

“[The Chinese] are so used to the [Obama] administration caving to them and bending over backward. I think they’re truly taken aback that this policy was put in place," the aide to the Virginia Republican told Epoch Times.

Ironically, the Xinhua reporters were at KSC to write about the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 particle detector, a component developed by Chinese scientist Samuel Ting.

Wolf, concerned about the sharing and co-mingling of space technology going forward, authored his eponymous security clause after the Obama administration began cozying up to Beijing in 2009.

Discussion of space partnerships extended to “hands-on, bilateral, human space flight technology sharing, training sharing, and critical national secrets or expertise,” Wolf’s office said.

Security and defense experts maintain that there is no real difference between China’s military and civil space programs, and Wolf says, “There is no reason to believe that the [People's Liberation Army's] space program will be any more benign than the PLA’s recent military posture.”

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, whose district includes the Kennedy Space Center, agrees with Wolf.

“The restriction makes good sense from a national security perspective,” said Posey, R-Rockledge. “Many forget that Communist China’s military and civilian industrial sectors are all one and the same.

"I have strong objections to sharing U.S. military and technological secrets with a communist regime that often has goals and aims that differ sharply with ours.”

The Wolf Clause, approved as part of the budget negotiations in April, will have to pass both the House and Senate again to remain in force into 2012.  While that's no sure bet -- and President Obama could veto the legislation -- a security expert said prudence is warranted.

“Congress exercising its power of the purse over technology transfers to countries they see as despicable is legitimate. We used to have such a policy to the Soviet Union; I don’t think it’s unprecedented," said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.

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Contact KenricWard at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.