The Ming had the problem that their predecessors, the Yuan Dynasty, had started a fight with Japan by attempted invasions in 1274A.D. and 1281A.D., that was countered over the next 3 centuries by the piratical assaults of Japanese, and Japanese-organized, pirate assaults on China itself, which the Ming Called Woukou piracy. These private assaults added to the internal faction fights in the Ming Court between the Eunuch Faction and the Scholar/Official Faction.

Even more, the Faction that lost in the struggle to dominate China after the Tumu Crisis of 1449-1455, was the Eunuch Faction who were the most deeply tied into Sea-faring Trade. This set the dominant Scholar/Official Faction against these sources of wealth for the Eunuchs, as sea-faring, by its nature, is a relatively independent operation compared to the farmers who had always given traditional obedience to ruling dynasties. As a modern analogy you can look at the dispute between the KMT and the CPC as the new factions.

The KMT lost decisively in 1949, exactly 500 years after the Tumu Crisis caused the purge of the Eunuch Faction in 1449. What does all of this have to do with Space? The reactionaries in Beijing are bent on undoing the 1978-1989 freeing of markets, because they have no tolerance for Party officials being over-shadowed by Hi Tech Billionaires. They also seem to be very aware how much spaceflight can open up new and less controlled activities, that might serve as an exemplum to people in China, that cannot be kept out of the perceptions of China’s population. Their targeting of StarLink in their UN complaint is an example of their fears for the future.

The net result is that for spaceflight, the CPC/PLA regime seems bent on a view that Private = Pirate!