{"id":33448,"date":"2017-08-11T12:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=33448"},"modified":"2017-08-10T10:25:28","modified_gmt":"2017-08-10T00:25:28","slug":"coming-chinas-space-silk-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/coming-chinas-space-silk-road\/","title":{"rendered":"The coming of China\u2019s Space Silk Road"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

China looks set to add a \u2018Space Silk Road\u2019 to its proposed land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, expanding the Belt and Road Initiative<\/a> (BRI; formerly known as One Belt, One Road) into orbit.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the Space Silk Road, BRI states would subscribe to use China\u2019s Beidou satellites for precision navigation and timing services. China had 23<\/a> operational satellites in orbit as of 2016 and continues to expand the Beidou system. Precision navigation and timing (PNT) satellites like Beidou are key enabling<\/a> technologies that can drive local economies and coordinate communications. Such systems enable<\/a> (PDF) diverse applications including mobile devices, and the use of precision timing can support stock market applications and financial services, coordinate rail and marine transportation management, and support mining, among many other industries. The 2016 Chinese white paper on space activities<\/a> emphasises the importance of Beidou, stating:<\/p>\n

With sustained efforts in building the Beidou global system, we plan to start providing basic services to countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road in 2018, form a network consisting of 35 satellites for global services by 2020, and provide all clients with more accurate and more reliable services through advancing the ground-based and satellite-based augmentation systems in an integrated way. (Part III, section 2 \u2018Space infrastructure\u2019)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It then goes on to specifically mention the concept of a Space Silk Road, announcing plans to establish a \u2018Belt and Road Initiative Space Information Corridor\u2019, which would include:<\/p>\n

earth observation, communications and broadcasting, navigation and positioning, and other types of satellite-related development; ground and application system construction; and application product development. (Part V, section 3 \u2018Key areas for future cooperation\u2019)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A China Real Time Report<\/a> in the Wall Street Journal<\/em> refers to Beidou as the \u2018digital glue\u2019 for the roads, railways, ports and industrial parks that China builds to extend its presence and influence. Chinese provision of satellite communications, weather monitoring and earth observation add to this vision for a Space Silk Road that overarches and underpins the Belt and Road Initiative. By signing up to the BRI \u2018Space Information Corridor\u2019, the BRI states would become dependent on Chinese-provided space services. That would give Beijing greater power to influence the policy choices of those states, because it would control the vital space capabilities that sustain their economic growth.<\/p>\n

The US and its allies shouldn\u2019t accept Chinese domination of Eurasia from space. The prospect of new space capabilities emerging from the \u2018Space 2.0\u2019 revolution that is now gathering pace makes competition in space with China less risky than it would have been in the past. First, unlike Beidou, the US GPS satellite system is already fully established and can be offered commercially to BRI states either for free or on competitive terms. Second, one of the biggest transformations in satellite communications in coming years will be mega-constellations (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>) to provide a low-earth orbit (LEO) based \u2018broadband in the sky\u2019 that can outperform traditional communications satellites such as those likely to be offered by Beijing.<\/p>\n

Space imaging companies such as Planet<\/a> and DigitalGlobe<\/a> already provide high-resolution commercial space imagery. And the emerging \u2018internet of things\u2019 is likely to be enabled through constellations of CubeSats. Australian company Fleet<\/a> is moving towards establishing itself as an important player in that aspect of the future globalised economy.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, these space capabilities are either being developed, in place or on the horizon, and they won\u2019t be operated by Beijing. The impact of Space 2.0 technologies would enable greater sovereign space capability for states, rather than dependency on external providers.<\/p>\n

Reusable launch capabilities are rapidly evolving. More companies are developing reusable rocket and airborne launch services that open the prospect for dramatic reductions in launch costs in the future. It\u2019s getting cheaper to get into space, and that enables wider access to space for more customers, and will end the dominance of the state on the high frontier. So there\u2019s no need for BRI states to simply accept Chinese control of access to space for their growing economies as part of signing up to the BRI. The West needs to promote Space 2.0 capabilities to BRI states rather than accept Chinese domination of that market.<\/p>\n

Space competition can be seen as an extension to terrestrial geopolitics, and control of the high ground of space allows domination of earth because if information is the basis of 21st century power, space is the domain through which that information will flow. A Chinese Space Silk Road would add a new layer of Chinese power and control over much of Eurasia and, unchallenged, would lock out Western companies and ensure Beijing was the sole provider of space services to BRI states. That would ultimately lock in Chinese control of BRI economies. That\u2019s never going to be a good outcome for the US in its broader competition with China for strategic primacy in Asia. It\u2019s also completely unnecessary given the rapidly changing nature of the global space industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China looks set to add a \u2018Space Silk Road\u2019 to its proposed land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, expanding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI; formerly known as One Belt, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":33452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,674,673,332],"class_list":["post-33448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-satellite","tag-space-policy","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe coming of China\u2019s Space Silk Road | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/coming-chinas-space-silk-road\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The coming of China\u2019s Space Silk Road | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"China looks set to add a \u2018Space Silk Road\u2019 to its proposed land-based Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, expanding the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI; 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