{"id":224260,"date":"2026-01-02T23:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/224260\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:24:10","slug":"no-space-for-starlink-why-xi-is-targeting-musks-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/224260\/","title":{"rendered":"No space for Starlink? Why Xi is targeting Musk\u2019s satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

China and Russia have launched a concerted pushback against Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite network, accusing it of endangering spacecraft and helping criminals, drug smugglers and terror groups.<\/p>\n

The two countries, supported by allies including Cuba and Iran, have gone to the United Nations to demand the US rein in Starlink, saying its expansion is breaching international obligations in space.<\/p>\n

Russia is furious at the way Starlink has been made available to Ukraine, enabling internet access on the front line for Ukrainian forces fighting the Russian invasion. <\/p>\n

\"Ukrainians<\/p>\n

Ukrainians use their mobile phones standing near a Starlink satellite-based broadband station in Kherson<\/p>\n

AFP\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

China is already gaming how Starlink might be blocked in the case of war over Taiwan, and is increasingly challenging American domination of space in military terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unchecked proliferation of commercial satellite constellations by a certain country, in the absence of effective regulation, has given rise to pronounced safety and security challenges,\u201d Fu Cong, China\u2019s United Nations representative, told a special UN meeting called by Russia to discuss their complaints.<\/p>\n

\"Fu<\/p>\n

Fu Cong, China\u2019s United Nations representative<\/p>\n

MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s SpaceX <\/a>now has roughly 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, providing international internet access outside the control \u2014 and censorship \u2014 of individual governments.<\/p>\n

Russia, in the Soviet Union\u2019s time America\u2019s main rival, has now fallen far behind in the space race, a sacrifice that became painful with Ukraine\u2019s ability to use Starlink to circumvent internet jamming and attacks on domestic communications systems.<\/p>\n

China has its own massive space programme, and its civilian astronauts are determined to beat the United States back to the moon. It is also developing its own rival \u201cmass constellation\u201d internet satellite network to rival Starlink.<\/p>\n

In military terms, much remains secret on both American and Chinese sides. But there is no doubt Beijing is concerned that the ability of the United States to combine state capacity and the private sector to dominate less apparently ambitious projects than moonshots has put China at a disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A Chinese Long March-7A rocket carrying satellites blasts off from Wenchang space launch site<\/p>\n

LUO YUNFEI\/CHINA NEWS SERVICE\/VCG\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Two papers published in a specialist journal recently revealed that Chinese scientists were testing methods of blocking Starlink over Taiwan in the case of a conflict over the island. It found that to do so would take at least 1,000 jamming drones<\/a> \u2014 a serious impediment to China\u2019s plans to isolate the island.<\/p>\n

Beijing has previously complained of \u201cnear misses\u201d between Starlink satellites and China\u2019s space station, known as Tiangong or \u201cHeavenly Palace\u201d. Starlink itself in early December complained that a Chinese satellite space launch came close to one of its satellites. <\/p>\n

China\u2019s recent moves began with a fine issued in December to a foreign vessel moored in Ningbo port for using Starlink, which is officially banned. A Chinese statement did not identify the vessel but said the onboard Starlink device had been spotted and records showed it had been used to transmit data inside Chinese territorial waters.<\/p>\n

It then complained about an incident in which a Starlink satellite broke down on December 17<\/a>, shedding some pieces of space debris as it fell to earth.<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

Presidents Trump and Xi<\/p>\n

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN\/AP<\/p>\n

This week, China joined forces with Russia at a security council expert meeting called by Moscow to discuss low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems, including Starlink, Amazon\u2019s Leo and Europe\u2019s Eutelsat OneWeb. It alleged that these systems, \u201cwhile claiming to offer cost efficiency, faster data transmission and better overall accessibility, especially in remote areas of various countries\u201d were a threat to state sovereignty and international security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIllegally imported terminals have been used to destabilise public order through dissemination of disinformation, manipulation of electoral processes and coordination of anti-government protests from abroad,\u201d a Russian statement said. \u201cDespite their declared commercial and civilian nature, these satellites have played a significant role in armed conflicts, including proxy wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting highlighted claims that terror groups waging insurgencies in Africa have used Starlink, though the Russian statement, with its mention of \u201cproxy wars\u201d, would also seem to be a dig at western support for Ukraine. Russia also called on experts on international crime to show how it was used by organised criminal groups in the drugs trade.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Terrorists exploit Starlink to spur Africa\u2019s rise to jihadist central<\/a><\/p>\n

China\u2019s UN representative refused to mention the United States by name, but repeated the past allegations about Starlink near misses and also referred to the military uses of private enterprise satellite installations.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Trump and Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket in Brownsville, Texas<\/p>\n

BRANDON BELL\/REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expanding military applications of such systems aggravate the risk of an arms race in outer space,\u201d he said. \u201cA certain country has made extensive use of commercial space entities to provide military reconnaissance, battlefield communications and other services, and has even directly intervened in armed conflicts in other countries. This has blurred the boundary between military and civilian activities in outer space.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called on the \u201ccertain country\u201d to \u201cstrengthen regulation and oversight of its commercial space activities, and respond to the concerns of the international community\u201d.<\/p>\n

The international community in this case included Cuba, which has also banned Starlink, but which also spoke against its deployment, Iran and Pakistan, who spoke in similar terms.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink is rewiring the world \u2014 but at what cost?<\/a><\/p>\n

The United Kingdom however challenged the Russian framing of the discussion, denying that the use of low earth orbit satellites was \u201cuncontrolled\u201d and saying international law was already sufficient to handle the satellites. The United States said that if Russia wanted to stop Ukraine\u2019s use of Starlink against Russian military targets, it could do so easily \u2014 by ending the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China and Russia have launched a concerted pushback against Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite network, accusing it of endangering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-224260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}