FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
China Is Reaching Out to More Nations for Cooperation in Space
April 22, 2018 (EIRNS)—China has been building new international partnerships and expanding its relations with a broad range of countries for science and technology and commercial activities in space. Li Guoping, a spokesman for China National Space Administration, reported at a press conference today that China has agreements with 37 countries and 4 international space organizations. He detailed some of the recent activities with other countries, such as the launch of a satellite for Algeria, and said China will push forward the construction of the BRICS remote sensing satellite constellation and the Belt and Road Initiative Space Information Corridor. China has already been working with Brazil for 30 years on the China-Brazil Earth remote sensing series of satellites.
Expanding its commercial business is a key new focus for China aerospace. China has been largely prevented from entering the commercial launch business due to 1990s U.S. export restrictions on a long list of so-called dual use products, and specifically, satellites and components. This has meant not only that China could not import U.S.-made satellites in order to launch them, but also that it was barred from importing satellites from Europe that contained American components. Finally, Europe has developed a satellite free of American parts, and other countries have manufactured satellites on their own, thereby opening up the launch market for China.
Li also said that for the future, China intends to have wider international cooperation in the fields of lunar probes, deep space exploration, and space science. China has recently had talks with Russia and the European Space Agency on further cooperation in deep space exploration.
China has recently invited foreign cooperation in the next phase of its lunar exploration program.
