US Official: China Posing Increasing Military Space Threat

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Facts

  • On Monday, Nina Armagno, the director of staff of the US Space Force, stated that rapid advancements in China's military capabilities pose growing threats to American dominance in outer space.
  • Admitting that the progress Beijing had made was "stunningly fast," Armagno revealed at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute that it was "entirely possible" China could catch up with and overtake the US in space capabilities.
  • Ye Peijian, head of China's Lunar Exploration Program, has compared the moon and Mars to islands in the South China Sea. Armagno described China as the only country that intends to transform the international order while also having the capacity.
  • Armagno also warned that China, together with Russia, had recently performed "reckless" missile tests, whose byproducts are a threat to the financial and scientific pursuits as well as the safety of "all nations."
  • China is set to launch the Shenzhou-15 mission from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday as part of a six-month program to finish building China's space station. The US has recently completed the delayed launch of Artemis 1, with intentions for astronauts to return to the moon later in the decade.

Sources: Reuters, CNBC, Canada Today, Minmin TV CP, and Independent.

Narratives

  • Pro-China narrative, as provided by Global Times. China is at the start of a new operational stage in space. The near-final construction of the state-of-the-art China Space Station shows China's growing strength in the field. Despite this, as seen through joint projects with the UN and the European Space Agency — alongside the fact that the new Space Station is open to all UN member states — China is more than willing to engage in international cooperation as Beijing's presence continues to grow.
  • Anti-China narrative, as provided by WSJ. Today the US is in a new space race, but this time against China, and experts are rightly worried. If China becomes the dominant space power in the next two decades, economic and national security will be at serious risk. Whoever dominates space will determine the future and we must abandon the fantasy that all nations will work together. Given what we know of China's behavior in differing circumstances, the space race must be won by the US to ensure the future of freedom in the 21st Century.