Hacker News Reader

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_exclusion_policy_of_NA...

Because of the possibility of a foreigner accessing sensitive information pertaining to the US space program.

Because you're working on the same kind of tech that powers nuclear ICBM and other missiles.

Because nationalism (offerring opportunities to aliens is bad!)

I think it has more to do with national security; i.e., not sharing our tech with other nation states that might use it against us. That used to be more of a thing a generation ago. For example, it used to be a crime to export certain computer technology to communist China. Now lot of our stuff is built there.

That itself is a result of nationalism, even explicitly.

But not for the reason you stated.

The reason is nationalism, what I wrote in the parentheses was meant as a tongue in cheek paraphrasing of some isolation supporter, I thought it was obvious because I would never call a person "alien" (as in intruder) seriously. The reason here is "nationalism" because that includes the whole history (which is in turn the reason for it).

Sorry for the confusion.