50 Years of China’s Space Ambitions

April marks the 50th anniversary of China's first successful space satellite launch, the Dong Fang Hong 1 (meaning “The East is Red 1”). Beijing also has a space launch slated for later this month as part of its initiative to build a new space station. Advances in space appear to have taken on a more central position in China’s collective efforts to be a global power. But how has China’s space program evolved since its launch in the 1950s? What are the international implications? How does Beijing conceptualize the purpose of space research and technology? And what are its future plans?

China’s Space Milestones

Today, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), along with its main contractor, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), oversees the planning and execution of China’s space program, and is subordinate to the State Administration for Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND). At the outset, the space program was overseen by the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Second Artillery Corps, but the program now falls under the country’s broader defense industry after a series of military and defense reorganizations.

The space program’s origins date back to the late 1950s, amid the Cold War’s space and arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although China successfully launched an artificial satellite into space in 1970 – making it the fifth country to do so – subsequent launches and plans for crewed space missions disintegrated due to economic constraints and the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s death in 1976.

By the late 1970s, as China began to implement its “reform and opening” economic policies under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, it built its first tracking and support ships – the Yuanwang class – for satellites and ICBMs. The first ships of this class completed their first survey mission in 1980. In 1985, China began its commercial launch program. Since then, it has aided in the launch of more than 50 foreign satellites for African, Asian, and European countries.

By the 1990s, Project 921 – a project to develop spacecraft for crewed flights – launched, conducting first an uncrewed test flight, followed by trials carrying test animals and test dummies. China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system, rivaling the United States’ GPS system, launched in 1994.

In the 21st century, China became the third country to successfully launch people into space, with a single astronaut spending just shy of a day in space in 2003. Beijing has since carried out five other manned space flights: in 2005, two astronauts spent five days in space; in 2008, three astronauts went into orbit and Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese astronaut to spacewalk; in 2012, another three astronauts, including a female astronaut, conducted a manned docking test; in 2013, a trio of astronauts spent two weeks in space, successfully docking several times to China’s space lab; and in 2016, a pair of astronauts led China’s longest crewed space mission, spending more than 30 days in space.

2007 was another year of firsts for Beijing, kicking off both its moon program with the successful launch of its first lunar orbiter, and its first anti-satellite capability test. China launched the Tiangong 1 in 2011, its first prototype space station, which orbited the earth until April 2018. China’s Jade Rabbit rover made its first lunar soft landing in 2013, though it later malfunctioned. Several years later, 2016 brought advances across a number of areas in China’s space program: its second temporary space station launched, it launched the world’s first quantum communications satellite, and two astronauts carried out China’s longest crewed mission. The same year, China also sent 6,000 mouse embryos to space, demonstrating the possibility of reproduction in outer space.

In 2017, a Chinese cargo vessel marked the country’s first successful docking and refueling flight. Last year, China became the first country to successfully land a lunar probe on the far side (also known as the dark side) of the moon. Months later, China also became the third country to perform a successful sea-based orbital launch from the Yellow Sea.

The International Dimension

In its earliest stages, China cooperated with and received tech transfers from the Soviet Union. These exchanges were short lived, interrupted by the Sino-Soviet split, and limited space cooperation did not resume again until the 1990s. There was some initial cooperation between U.S. companies and China that helped facilitate technological improvement, but in the early 2010s, citing security concerns, the United States passed legislation banning the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from working with Chinese nationals, using funds to host Chinese visitors, or granting entrance to Chinese nationals at NASA facilities.

In contrast, while Beijing prides itself in its indigenous space advances, it has concentrated on opening up its space program to scientists from around the world and has pushed an open posture on space cooperation. For example, Bai Mingsheng, the designer of China’s first cargo spacecraft, said, “China might be the only country that will run a space station in the foreseeable future. We could invite other nations to carry out experiments on [our] space station, making it an international scientific platform for all humankind.” This sentiment of openness and sharing space knowledge has been echoed by Chinese diplomats and reflects broader Chinese efforts and claims to “democratize” international relations. “The China Space Station belongs not only to China, but also to the world,” said China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna, Shi Zhongjun. Separately, Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of China’s Manned Space Engineering Office, said in 2019 that “China is willing to share the achievements of the country’s manned spaceflight with countries all over the world, especially with the developing countries.”

International Chinese space cooperation takes place on both bilateral and multilateral fronts. China has signed dozens of agreements and memoranda of understanding with countries and space agencies around the world, (including Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, the European Space Agency, Germany, Laos, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela) on issues ranging from space technology and space applications to space science, education, and training, as well as commercial export of parts or the facilitation of satellite launches.

Chinese multilateral efforts have concentrated on dialogues under the auspices of United Nations platforms. Other regional or small groups, including the Belt and Road Initiative, the BRICS, ASEAN, and the Lancang-Mekong River grouping have also developed forums for space discussions.

“China uses space as a form of soft power,” writes Lincoln Hines, a Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University whose work focuses on the role of status-seeking in China’s space program. Space-related “public goods provision provides a useful means by which China improves its image and standing internationally,” he adds.

Still, advances in China’s space program have raised a number of concerns for international actors, including the production of space debris, dual-use technology development, the militarization of space, and civil-military fusion. For example, China’s anti-satellite capability raises security concerns for other international actors as it allows attacks on the satellites of adversaries, disrupting communication, and aiding in the interception of ballistic missiles. China’s civil-military fusion, or the push by the government to lower barriers between defense and commercial industries, has encouraged the rapid development of private space enterprises to expand civilian space infrastructure. However, such technological tests are only possible at military sites and as such, China has witnessed a proliferation of military-civilian partnerships.

Future Plans

Despite the likely Chinese and global economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s long-term space goals are unlikely to be jeopardized. Instead, they may simply suffer from a timeline delay. Over the next 20 years, China plans to further its exploration, landings, and sample returns. Among the CNSA’s long-term goals are to improve China’s standing in the world of space science, build a crewed space station, lead manned missions to the moon, establish a crewed lunar base, lead robotic missions to Mars, and explore asteroids, Jupiter, and tentatively, Uranus. The new space station is projected to be completed and put into use by 2022. A Mars orbiter and rover mission are slated for launch later this year. Part of the motivation behind some of these explorations is to build the means to exploit the moon and other matter in space for industrial development. As Namrata Goswami has written for The Diplomat, “China is the only country to articulate a long-term vision of space settlement and utilization,” for solar power and renewable energy, as well as resource extraction.

The Importance of Space in Beijing

The Chinese government sees the space industry as an important part of the nation’s overall development strategy and rhetorically emphasizes its commitment to principles of innovative, coordinated, peaceful, and open development. Among the stated purposes of China’s space advances in its 2016 white paper are the promotion of human civilization and social progress; meeting the demands of economic, scientific and technological development; national security and social progress; the protection of China’s national rights and interests; and building up its overall strength. Space achievements provide economic, security, and symbolic benefits, though there is significant variation in the material gains, especially given the costly nature of space exploration.

China’s space program is significant on multiple fronts. Not only do its achievements in space place it among the United States and Russia (and the former Soviet Union) as a member in the great powers club, but space also offers a new area for national development and domestic political gains.

Xi Jinping has explicitly linked the space program to China’s goal of “national rejuvenation,” stating that “the space dream is part of the dream to make China stronger. With the development of space programs, the Chinese people will take bigger strides to explore further into space.” On other occasions, Xi has expressed China’s desire to become a “space power.”

While the effect of China’s space successes may simultaneously provide a template for other developing countries to emulate and be seen as security threats to regional powers, the domestic implications are more clear. “Chinese leaders can signal to domestic audiences that under their stewardship, China is able to achieve technological feats” that few other countries have also been able to achieve, writes Hines. He adds that “success in space can provide a boost in nationalism – which the CCP often relies on as a means to legitimize its rule at home.”