{"id":287022,"date":"2025-11-12T10:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287022\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T10:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:06:08","slug":"china-has-big-ambitions-in-space-and-the-arctic-should-the-west-be-worried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287022\/","title":{"rendered":"China has big ambitions in space and the Arctic. Should the West be worried?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In 2003, a decade after the humiliation of the Yinhe incident \u2013 when a Chinese container ship was left stranded for weeks after the United States jammed its Global Positioning System (GPS) \u2013 Beijing set its sights on bypassing the American satellite network.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At first, it turned to the European Union, pledging \u20ac230 million (then US$260 million) to join the Galileo project, an independent satellite navigation system designed to reduce Europe\u2019s reliance on GPS.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But the partnership did not last. Four years later, China was marginalised from full participation in Galileo amid European security concerns and the collapse of the project\u2019s financing model, according to The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That journey from exclusion to autonomy reflects a broader national drive: China\u2019s determination to safeguard its national security by mastering critical technologies once controlled by others.<\/p>\n<p>This objective is pushing China to rapidly <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3330611\/chinas-geopolitical-competition-expands-new-frontiers-scientific-milestones?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">expand its presence in a host of new frontiers<\/a>: from the ocean floor to the Arctic Circle and into outer space. But it is also generating fresh tensions with the West, which is eyeing China\u2019s moves warily.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Beijing\u2019s ambitions have steadily risen. In its 14th five-year plan, which covers 2021 to 2025, China identified deep-sea exploration and aerospace technology as vital to national security and called for \u201cforward-looking and strategic\u201d projects in these areas. It also proposed the construction of an \u201cice Silk Road\u201d to strengthen China\u2019s polar presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2003, a decade after the humiliation of the Yinhe incident \u2013 when a Chinese container ship was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[102003,35160,83608,550,144,5335,125315,3800,151112,151115,151114,151116,1206,79,151113,193,74158],"class_list":["post-287022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-aberdeen","tag-arctic","tag-beidou","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-european-union","tag-galileo","tag-gps","tag-jiaolong","tag-li-hanming","tag-mercator-institute-for-china-studies-merics","tag-qianfan-project","tag-russia","tag-science","tag-shan-guangcun","tag-space","tag-tiangong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}