China Aims to Become the World's Leading Space Power by 2045

by Judith Bergman • May 9, 2021 at 5:00 am

"China is taking steps to establish a commanding position in the commercial launch and satellite sectors relying in part on aggressive state-backed financing that foreign market-driven companies cannot match." — US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in its 2019 Annual Report to Congress.
"Chinese and Russian space activities present serious and growing threats to U.S. national security interests. Chinese and Russian military doctrines also indicate that they view space as critical to modern warfare and consider the use of counterspace capabilities as both a means of reducing U.S. military effectiveness and for winning future wars." — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, written testimony prior to his confirmation hearing. Space.com, March 19, 2021.
"The PRC continues to strengthen its military space capabilities, despite its public stance against the weaponization of space.... the PRC is developing electronic warfare capabilities such as satellite jammers....and China probably intends to pursue additional ASAT [Anti-Satellite] weapons capable of destroying satellites...." — Pentagon report about China's military capabilities, Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2020.
Given the chance, China will also move ahead to use space to dominate not only the US but also the rest of the planet. Any defense budget cuts or flatlines in the in the US military budget -- or any monetary transfers out of it -- should be regarded as suicidal.

In terms of US national security, China's space capabilities have been defined as one of the most significant future threats. Pictured: A Long March 5B rocket, carrying China's Tianhe space station core module, lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan province on April 29, 2021. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Shortly after becoming president in March 2013, Xi Jinping made his ambitions for China's space power clear. "Developing the space program and turning the country into a space power is the space dream that we have continuously pursued", he said. "The space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger". China aims to become the world's leading space power by 2045: "China will become an all-round world-leading country in space equipment and technology. By then, it will be able to carry out man-computer coordinated space exploration on a large scale," wrote China Daily in 2017.

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The G7 and Its Dicey Clichés

by Amir Taheri • May 9, 2021 at 4:00 am

The real bad news, however, is that the London conference failed to develop a coherent and mutually agreed analysis of the international situation, without which no serious policy-making is possible. The Americans came to London with a set of clichés used during their presidential campaign last year, notably the catch-all "America is back!", but were unable to say where that "back" was or whether it was necessary to go there.
They also talked a lot about "multilateralism" without making it clear what it was they wanted to be multilateral about. Multilateralism is a method of doing things, not the substance of policy. You could do both wise and foolish things multilaterally. The Libyan disaster resulted from President Barack Obama's "leading from behind" multilateralism. The latest example of foolish multilateralism is the cut-and-run policy the Biden administration is marketing on Afghanistan.
What seems clear is that both China and Russia are trying to project power in a 19th-century colonial style... Putin's strategy... copying General Paskevich's warning: "to keep the land you grabbed today, you will have to grab more land tomorrow."
Does anyone believe that, short of a shock-and-awe operation, Kim Jung-on could be leashed in without help from China? And could the G7's habitual cat-and-mouse game with the Khomeinist regime in Tehran produce positive results while Russia plays cheerleader for the mullahs?
The current G7 position could only persuade Beijing and Moscow to set their differences aside and promote a low-intensity global war against the democratic world.

Even if the so-called G7 group of industrial democracies is no longer as powerful and/or relevant as it was when it was first launched more than four decades ago, it is still capable of making a difference on the global stage where a difference is necessary. Pictured: Foreign ministers of the G7 meet in London on May 4, 2021. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Even if the so-called G7 group of industrial democracies is no longer as powerful and/or relevant as it was when it was first launched more than four decades ago, it is still capable of making a difference on the global stage where a difference is necessary. It is therefore good news that the group, consisting of the US, Canada, Britain, Germany France, Italy, and Japan managed to convene a face-to-face conference of its foreign ministers in London, the first in two years.

The ministerial conference, also attended by the European Union foreign policy spokesman, had the task of preparing the agenda for a full summit of the seven nations, again in Britain, next month. The planned summit will provide Joe Biden with his first foray into the international arena as US President.

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