Feb. 25, 2015 |

21st Century China Opinion

China views space as 'the ultimate high ground'

From the source

"Experts speaking to Congress's U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China's fast advances in military and civilian space technology were part of a long-term strategy to shape the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific."

Source: Reuters

Our take

The following is an excerpt from testimony given Feb. 18, 2015 to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

China views the development of space power as a necessary move for a country that wants to strengthen its national power. Indeed, China's goal is to become a space power on par with the United States and to foster a space industry that is the equal of those in the United States, Europe and Russia.

China takes a comprehensive, long-term approach to its space program that emphasizes the accrual of the military, economic and political benefits space can provide. By placing much of its space program in a 15-year development program and providing ample funding, the Chinese government provides a stable environment in which its space program can prosper.

China's space program assists the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in its efforts to achieve information superiority, defined as the ability to freely use information and the ability to deny the use of information to an adversary. Based on their analysis of U.S. military operations, Chinese military researchers view space as a critical component in making the PLA into a force capable of winning "informatized" wars and recognize the role space plays in the collection and transmittal of information, and the need to deny those capabilities to an adversary.

Indeed, nearly every Chinese source describes space as the "ultimate high ground," leading many Chinese analysts to assess that space warfare is inevitable. Because of the preeminence of the space battlefield, analysts writing on space argue that it will become the center of gravity in future wars and one that must be seized and controlled. In fact, these analysts argue that the first condition for seizing the initiative is to achieve space supremacy.

There are several actions the United States can take to ameliorate the effects of China's rise as a space power. First, if the U.S. is to remain the leading space power then it must continue to invest in both its civilian and military space programs. Second, the most valuable resource of any industry is its people. The United States must continue to invest in its space workforce and in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.

Third, the United States should enhance its space situational awareness capabilities to better able to better monitor the space and counter-space activities of other countries. Fourth, the United States could invest in smaller and more distributed satellite capabilities. Although smaller satellites would not be as capable and robust as larger satellites, the distribution of greater numbers of satellites would make the loss of any one satellite less catastrophic to the architecture as a whole.

Kevin Pollpeter is deputy director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation's project on the Study of Innovation and Technology in China and an affiliated scholar at the 21st Century China Program.

Field Notes from China:

Selections from

the

Chinese-language Media

What's on the reading list of CCP cadres?

2014影响领导干部的图书

Summary: What have the leading members of the CCP been reading over the past year? Study Times, an influential CCP-run newspaper, sent out a questionnaire to students at the Central Party School in Beijing, as well as to provincial-level schools, to ask what books they had been reading in the past year. News of recommended books within the CCP are often published in an effort to signal the current political mood, such as when secretary of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Wang Qishan recommended Alexis de Tocqueville's "The Old Regime and the Revolution" in 2013. Many interpreted the news as evidence that the CCP was concerned over the paradox of rising living standards leading to an increase in social friction.

The book list from the story:

1. "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China"

2. "Study the Speeches of Xi Jinping"

3. "The Deng Xiaoping Era" by Ezra Vogel (the title of the English-language edition was "Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China")

4. "Premier of the Qing Dynasty" (a study of Chen Tingjing, one of the emperor Kangxi's teachers)

5. "Lee Kuan Yew: On China and the World"

6. "Capital in the 21st Century" by Thomas Piketty

7. "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" by Samuel P. Huntington

8. "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith

9. "Public Authorities Under the Heaven: Multi-centered Governance and Federal Approaches to Authority" by Wu Jiaxiang

10. "20 Years' Reflection on Soviet Communist Party's Decline" by Li Shenming

Note: All books in the list refer to the Chinese-language editions.

Source: 学习时报

Only when US-China relations have improved

can the 'pivot' be considered a success

中美关系稳定，"重返亚太"才算成功

Summary: The Chinese reaction to the United States "pivot to Asia" has been uniformly negative, with high levels of suspicion towards the motivation underlying the move. This has been particularly pronounced among members of China's international relations establishment, although occasionally some look to disrupt the pattern of pessimism. Da Wei, the director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations offers just such a perspective. Perhaps setting the groundwork for Xi Jinping's visit to the U.S. in September, the piece offers an optimistic, if cautious, outlook for the future of U.S.-China relations.

Excerpt from the story: "America is a pacific nation, and its pivot to Asia shouldn't be blindly opposed by China. But this depends on Barack Obama doing like he said, and putting the stability of the U.S.-China relationship at the core of the pivot strategy, rather than sacrificing relations as the price of the pivot. The two meetings between Obama and Xi Jinping in 2013 and 2014 helped promote the operation of the "new type of great power relations." We look forward to Obama continuing this kinetic energy in the coming year. With 23 months left in his administration, future cooperation will depend upon U.S.-China relations being placed at the center of the rebalancing. This would not only solidify Obama's diplomatic legacy, but also establish a stable future for U.S.-China relations."

Source: 环球时报

China Talk: Interviews, Lectures and Events

The rule of law under Xi Jinping

Jerome Cohen, one of the leading experts on China's legal institutions, visited UC San Diego on Feb. 24, 2015 to discuss recent developments in China's legal system as well as the fallout from the Zhou Yongkang corruption case and recently announced decisions following the Fourth Plenum. Click on the image to launch the audio.

School of International Relations and Pacific Studies

21st Century China Program

china.ucsd.edu

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The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position of the 21st Century China Program.