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China’s plans to dominate space revealed in a new Chinese government white paper

China's 2022 white paper on space

The new colonial movement: The Chinese government today released a white paper summarizing in broad terms what it has accomplished in space over the past five years and what it intends to do in the next five years.

If this white paper is ignored by western governments, the ramifications to human freedom and civilization in space will be profound, and quite likely tragic.

You can read the English text of the white paper here.

The paper makes clear China’s considerable successes and advancements in the aerospace sector since 2016. It ramped up its manned program with the launch of two prototype space modules followed by the on-going assembly of its fullsize station. It has successfully landed probes on the Moon and Mars, and brought back samples from the former. It is presently upgrading or replacing its older rockets. It has launched a full constellation of Landsat-type Earth-resource satellites. It has expanded its satellite communications and broadcasting capabilities. It has completed its 30-satellite GPS-type constellation.

And that’s only a short summary.

The white paper then outlines China’s ambitious plans for the next five years. Three areas are of greatest importance.

First, it plans to continue and accelerate its manned and planetary programs. The space station will be completed, including the launch of an optical space telescope comparable to Hubble that will be maintained and repaired by space station astronauts. Missions to the Moon and Mars will continue. Sample missions to Mars and the asteroids are also being developed.

Second, China will continue its attempt to create an independent commercial aerospace industry while still maintaining full control over it, as indicated by this quote:

China adopts a holistic approach in building its space industry. It mobilizes and guides different sectors to take part in and contribute to this key industry, and coordinates all relevant activities under an overall plan. It ensures that technology plays a greater role in promoting and guiding space science and applications, and it facilitates the growth of new forms and models of business for the industry. These measures aim to raise the quality and overall performance of China’s space industry.

This contradictory policy illustrates the difference between China’s communist rulers and the Soviet Union’s last communist leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev wanted to allow for free elections, but also assumed the communists would automatically win. He discovered to his shock that if you allow people freedom, they might not choose as you expect. The Soviet Union fell.

China’s leaders have never made that foolish assumption. While they have encouraged private companies to get investment capital and build new rockets and satellites, they have never given those companies any real freedom or ownership over what they build. The government decides that, and then these pseudo-private companies scramble for investment capital to build it. And woe to any company that decides to branch out in a direction not approved by the communists, as indicated by this most intriguing sentence in the white paper’s section on the commercialization of its space industry:

It will establish a negative list for market access to space activities, to ensure fair competition and the orderly entry and exit of participating enterprises.

In other words, if you don’t do what they say they will blackball you.

Under this government-run system, China hopes to expand its presence in near-Earth space, including in-space satellite servicing, the removal of space junk, and the continuing expansion of its orbital communications, broadcasting, and technical capabilities.

Third, the white paper outlines China’s desire to influence international law to limit private enterprise and private property. Its number one international goal is:

Safeguarding the central role of the United Nations in managing outer space affairs; abiding by the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies [the Moon Treaty]; upholding the guiding role of relevant UN principles, declarations and resolutions; actively participating in the formulation of international rules regarding outer space; and promoting greater sustainability of space activities;

The Moon Treaty in not the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. The latter has been signed by 111 countries, including all the space-faring nations. The 1979 Moon Treaty in turn has only been signed by five nations, with eighteen others either favoring it or still considering it. Most western nations however have rejected it, because it would essentially outlaw any private commercial ownership on the Moon, putting it instead under the jurisdiction of an “international regime.”

Ironically, China itself has not signed the Moon Treaty as yet, and has probably not done so because it believes its provisions are not strong enough in favor of governments. The white paper suggests China intends to use its influence in the next five years to get nations to agree to a new treaty that is even more hostile to private property and individual rights in space.

The main take-away from this white paper is that China’s government is continuing its very rational and carefully thought out program in space, and that it will be a very powerful force to reckon with in the coming decade. Increasingly sophisticated Chinese satellites and robots will be launched. Chinese astronauts are going to land on the Moon. They are heading to Mars. And they will be in Earth orbit in their space station.

And above all, China strongly intends to be in control wherever it lands.

To ignore these facts will be very foolish, and will likely allow China to control the heavens for decades, if not centuries, to come.

But then, the western nations now appear more and more foolish with each passing day, far more interested in silly things — such as the clothing that the Disney cartoon character Minnie Mouse wears or the skin color and sex of its future Supreme Court justices — then the certain threats of domination from world powers like China.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

14 comments

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    I have a two questions.

    First question:
    Once the Chinese and Russian proposed moon base project starts, (called International Lunar Research Station (ILRS)), systems will need to be developed for energy, communication, life support, structures, etc.
    How difficult is this challenge for the Russians & Chinese given what they have accomplished in the past?

    Second question:
    Reportedly, the ILRS project will be open to other countries to join.  
    What other countries could actually add productive engineering talent to assist the Russians & Chinese? Which Allies could they call on?

  • pzatchok

    Read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”

    Do we really want Russia and China to have a moon base?

  • Max

    They were quick to announce the skin color and sex of the new Supreme Court judge, but failed to let the old judge decide to retire.

    A bit more clarity. I’m told Justice Breyer had firmly decided on his own to retire and that an announcement was due very soon. And while it appears someone jumped the gun on that, better to characterize him as surprised by events today than “upset”
    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/01/26/oh-my-breyer-wasnt-planning-to-announce-his-retirementso-who-leaked-it-n2602412

    China has big plans, but slaves can only work so fast and are unreliable. They built so much so fast with inferior materials it’s a race against entropy until the roads and buildings to come crashing down making everything come to a stop.

    Who can assist the Russians and the Chinese and join them and their effort?
    They have the full support, and technology expertise given to them from the US government. Everything they weren’t given freely was stolen with no consequences. China is at the center of the build back better secret government Davos supported billionaire club. (Chinese president ping gave the opening speech) You can count on United States to give them all the support they need through the deep state. The socialist communist fascist like Facebook, Google, alphabet, George Soros, Bill Gates, the movie (propaganda) industry, Disney etc. and investment empires like State Street, Black rock, Vanguard who have cleaned out the US treasury to buy the world… already entered into a deal with China’s future. They are currently holding all the marbles, but is it enough?

    The only way this future can happen is if they take active measures to limit the competition like SpaceX. Perhaps a new variant like “BA.2” that they are already “preparing for” a another lockdown to prevent… They haven’t learned anything the last time, so this will be done for their own purpose?

    Is there any truth to the rumors that SpaceX “musk” has been negotiating with China?

  • James Street

    We have different priorities: increasing our corrupt bureaucracy and paying off leftist special interest groups especially the godless Chicom commies.

    Biden signs $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law, unlocking funds for transportation, broadband, utilities
    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/15/biden-signing-1-trillion-bipartisan-infrastructure-bill-into-law.html

    Today I happened to read Revelation 12:

    “Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.”

    Not implying anything. Every age has thought they were in the end times. Just one of the bits-of-info I store in the back of my mind.

    打中共

  • wayne

    James–
    I’m pretty much an atheist, but this makes perfect sense to me….

    Revelation 13
    “He who has an ear, let him hear:
    10 If anyone is destined for captivity, into captivity he will go; if anyone is to die by the sword, by the sword he must be killed.
    11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
    12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
    13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
    14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
    15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
    16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
    17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
    18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”

    Thermonuclear Strike
    https://youtu.be/S-V6MZlyCqE
    2:22

  • Andi

    打中共 indeed! But who will do the 打-ing?

  • Andi: For those who do not understand Chinese, can you translate?

  • Concerned

    Bob is absolutely right to be concerned about the CCP—they are antithetical to every precept of liberty that the Western world birthed and found its greatest expression in the United States. The industrial revolution would not have happened, or would have been delayed by centuries, without the Enlightenment. For proof, just look at almost all of Asia and particularly China. They were technologically moribund until the merchants of the West brought their technological advances there. It’s basically been a brain suck since then, accelerating in the last few decades because there are active collaborators in the West feeding them technology and capital resources. Sure, China, due to their authoritarian system and slave labor, can quickly and efficiently exploit this technology to deploy impressive systems. But I challenge anyone to name just one basic scientific advance or ground-breaking engineering development originating in China. All of their accomplishments have simply been copying what’s already been done years and decades before in the West (or refining and scaling them up). Free Western innovators like Elon Musk are the greatest threat to the CCP—I so wish SpaceX’s advancements could be hidden from the Chinese—they would have never independently developed what Musk has done with the reusable Falcon and Starship rockets. With the existence proof and basic idea in hand, wholesale copying of those innovations are probably already happening there.

  • Andi

    Bob –
    打 (da) – to strike or to smash
    中共 (zhong gong) – Communist China

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Bob, Andi, Concerned & Wayne:

    Let’s take on the Reagan perspective of going on the Offensive. So when it comes to China, the anthem needs to be “Take down the CCP!”. Here are some lyrics to a popular song that promotes that idea:

    Communism sucks, hard for me to give a [Brandon](Woo)
    Tried to tell ’em and they tried to keep it on the hush (Shh)
    Middle finger up, turn into a fist
    They wanna keep the poor poor so they never rich
    If you wanna see the future, look into the past
    Been a century of silence, we gon’ take it back (Back)
    I’m just stating facts (Right), tell you how it is
    Ain’t no way to change $h*| if we don’t resist
    [Pre-Chorus]
    Take and take and take from us
    Tell us what and who to love
    Swear I’ve finally had enough
    It’s time to rise above (Oh)

    [Chorus]
    Take down the CCP
    Take down the CCP
    Follow me and I’ma set us free
    Take down the CCP
    I said take down the CCP (Oh)
    Take down the CCP (Oh)
    Communism’s dead to me
    Because it killed our families
    [Brandon] the CCP

    [Interlude]
    這是以我維護正義的必須
    這是以我維護正義的必須
    Take down the CCP

  • Andi

    這是以我維護正義的必須

    Rough translation: This is what I must do to uphold justice.

  • Lee S

    There is very much moaning and groaning regarding the Chinese space program…. It’s all stolen … Etc, etc…. But as I’ve been saying for more than a decade now, underestimate the Chinese at your own peril.
    The US government space program changes every 4 years… The commercial sector is thankfully now up and running, but neither will be able to compete with China who are throwing a huge amount of money at space exploration.
    There will be a Chinese Luna base before a US one, and it’s down to Musk to see who gets the first footprints on Mars…. Unfortunately, nothing to do with NASA.
    I’m no fan of communism ( believe it or not ), but a one party system has advantages when it comes to long term planning…. China has a long term plan, and it seems to be working.

  • Jeff Wright

    Agreed. Bill Maher, who I don’t always agree with, found the Chinese sobriety ever so much impressive than our foolishness

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Bob, now that Andi has provided you with Chinese translations, perhaps you can address the substantial questions contained in the the first comment on this thread:

    First question:
    Once the Chinese and Russian proposed moon base project starts, (called International Lunar Research Station (ILRS)), systems will need to be developed for energy, communication, life support, structures, etc.
    How difficult is this challenge for the Russians & Chinese given what they have accomplished in the past?
    Second question:
    Reportedly, the ILRS project will be open to other countries to join.
    What other countries could actually add productive engineering talent to assist the Russians & Chinese? Which Allies could they call on?

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