China to conquer space
Audio 03:32
This NASA photo shows NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter performing a powered, controlled flight for the first time on another planet.
(Illustration) Handout NASA / AFP / File
By: Christophe Paget Follow
12 mins
A robot on Mars in May, a space station under construction - taikonauts, that's the name of Chinese astronauts, should go there in June;
a lunar base project with Russia… In recent months, the Middle Empire's space program has become more and more visible, and is giving the rest of the heavyweights in space, especially the Americans, a cold sweat.
Publicity
In fact, the Chinese space program is far from recent: it dates from the end of the 1950s. Even before the launch of the first Russian satellite Sputnik, Mao Zedong estimated in 1956 that China must become a space power to "
be recognized. within the great powers, and to
be present in the new world which is opening up,
”explains Isabelle Sourbès-Verger, research director at the CNRS and author of
A very celestial empire: China conquering the space
. But China, which already has to face a significant economic and technological delay, is then confronted with the Cultural Revolution, when its first launcher program is being set up, with the consequence "
there again a disorganization of the technological and scientific teams, and therefore it is in this very troubled context that China will successfully launch its first satellite in 1970
”.
The three pillars of Chinese space policy
It was really from the 1980s and the coming to power of Deng Xiaoping, and his policy of reforms and openness, that the Chinese space program could really take off, and be structured around “
well-structured
” programs.
and above all ambitious, with much larger budgets
, ”explains Marc Julienne, researcher at Ifri and author of the study
China's ambition in space
. Since then, Beijing has been catching up, with specific objectives, the first of which has always been the economic and social development of the country: "
China has never had the land infrastructures that we can know in developed countries
", emphasizes Isabelle Sourbès. - Orchard, "
be it telecommunications or land use planning and management tools. However, China is a huge country, with a very large population, which is sometimes in areas of difficult access
. And the benefits of the space program are numerous - earth observation, telecommunications, public television, weather and so on.
The second aspect of the program, "it
was national defense
", explains Marc Julienne, stressing the "
dual
"
character
of space applications, both military and civilian.
For Beijing, therefore, it was a question of "
defending the country against external invasions, and
American and Russian
power
at its borders
".
Finally, a third pillar has been added, "
and which is one of the most important today
" notes the researcher: "
the competition between the great powers.
Ambitions and achievements in space show the greatness of a power on earth: for China, space is one of the ways of its ambitions to become a great world power.
"
An ambition that worries
In fact, the other great space powers are worried about the progress of the Chinese program.
Russia sees this rise in power with "
mixed apprehension
," said Isabelle Sourbès-Verger:
"What
bothers her is that there is a major political project behind Chinese space.
However, Russia, which for a long time had much superior technology in this field than
those
of China, is lacking in political projects
”, and has not presented any major space achievements in recent years.
Moscow is therefore allied with Beijing (for example with a basic project on the far side of the moon), but "
There is a risk of passing from first to second, which is not very pleasant for national pride when one has known the greatness of the Soviet Union.
"
As for India, it has a position of "
mistrust
" vis-à-vis China, in particular as regards regional influence in Asia: New Delhi therefore tries to thwart the influence. Chinese by also offering other Asian countries space cooperation.
Europe is “
bored
”, explains Isabelle Sourbès-Verger: if China continues to develop its commercial capacities, in particular the manufacture of satellites, “
it will potentially be
a competitor
in the commercial launch market, where there is already has American launchers
”.
Finally the most worried are perhaps the Americans: worried about seeing China acquire new skills in what has long been for them "
a private preserve
", and who fear being dislodged from first place.
They therefore try to slow down their opponent.
Shelving
At the request of the Americans, China cannot send taikonauts to the ISS, the international space station: "
There is a fear in the United States of technological catching up with China"
, explains Marc Julienne, "
and Involving China was in a way helping it to develop its space program, with the possibility of leaking know-how and technologies.
Beijing therefore also cannot launch a satellite made with American components - for example satellites made in Europe or Japan with these components. And in 2011, the US Congress passed a law to prohibit NASA from cooperating with Chinese institutions or companies in the space field. "
There is a real distancing of American space technologies, roughly from Tiananmen, ”
notes Isabelle Sourbès-Verger, who stresses that the American budget is still much higher than the estimates of the Chinese budget, which would be around 15 at $ 20 billion, for an American space budget of more than $ 50 billion.
But this sidelining of China to avoid catching up has actually helped it, forcing Beijing to largely fend for itself. China, which wanted to do research in orbit in a zero gravity condition, thus developed its own space station (CSS). A station being assembled which could very well put them in a position of strength in the years to come, because the ISS will reach the end of its life in a few years. "
The Chinese station could become the only space station, at least state, for scientific research in Earth orbit
by the
end of the decade
», Remarks Marc Julienne. The Russians and the Americans certainly have their own projects (a station in lunar orbit for the United States), but the Chinese station will be quickly completed, by 2022. Beijing has announced the opening of this station to international cooperation , presumably in the direction of developing countries like Pakistan, and Russia. But it will be on his terms, notes Marc Julienne. If the ISS were an international station (United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and eleven European countries), which operated on the basis of treaties signed between governments, the new station will be exclusively Chinese, and therefore the announced cooperation will be will do "
at will and under the conditions decreed by China
." It will thus be able to serve in Beijing as "
diplomatic leverage on other political and economic issues which have nothing to do with space ”.
Space disarmament
Moreover, the Chinese are also trying to curb the spatial possibilities of their opponent.
With the Russians, for many years they have been proposing to the UN a draft treaty "
to prevent the arms race in space
".
Both the United States and France are opposed to it.
Washington denounces a certain bad faith because, recalls Marc Julienne, Beijing and Moscow say at the same time "
we must disarm and prohibit the placement of weapons in orbit
" and "
we develop them
", with the argument: "
as long as the States -United develop some, we have to defend ourselves
".
China and Russia therefore have programs in anti-satellite missiles fired from the earth, lasers, electromagnetic weapons ... And, another ambiguity, do not say if they will get rid of them once the treaty is signed.
Moreover, one of the major problems for the United States in this proposed treaty is the absence of a control mechanism once the text has been signed - a mode of verification that is nevertheless common in international treaties (on nuclear weapons for example).
Note that these weapons are still in development, and are, for those that some countries already master, very difficult to deploy (the destruction of satellites for example).
Beyond the "threat" denounced by Washington, Marc Julienne notes that the success of the Chinese program will have acted as an electric shock for Europeans.
Europe is a space power which in recent decades has had difficulty in renewing itself, while the development of China has been "
dazzling
".
Today, it wants to be more ambitious so as not to be left behind, and to develop in the future a dependence on Beijing, Washington or other actors.
Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for Space, recently announced a project for a European constellation (a set of satellites) for the Internet based in space.
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