America’s ‘Star Wars’ Against China
Article by Tom Fowdy November 25, 2020 (news.cgtn.com)
• The Trump administration has announced that it is adding an additional 89 Chinese aerospace companies to the list of those prohibited from acquiring US-made components and technologies without approval, linking them to a “national security threat.” The obvious goal is protectionism – to stifle China’s own development in the aerospace sector, forcing China to rely on US firms such as Boeing.
• The Trump administration has made the decision that China represents a competitor in space exploration and technology, and that Beijing wants to militarize outer space. As China sends its Chang’e-5 lunar module to the Moon, Trump is trying to undermine China’s entire aerospace industry to gain the upper hand.
• In 2018, Trump created Space Force “to protect US and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force” including satellite-orientated warfare and missile technology. Is this not the militarization of outer space contravening the 1967 Outer Space Treaty? The United States wants to gain unchallenged military hegemony over the entire world and sees China as a “competitor.”
• The US defense community claims that it is Beijing that is militarizing space as it works on its own satellite and exploration programs. As an article from Defense News claims, “China wants to dominate space, and the US must take countermeasures.” Beijing, however, claims to uphold the consensus that space is for peaceful development only.
• In December 2019, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang condemned the US Space Force, stating, “The relevant US actions are a serious violation of the international consensus on the peaceful use of outer space, undermine global strategic balance and stability, and pose a direct threat to outer space peace and security.”
• The “China threat” narrative is about maintaining US strategic supremacy as the only major player in outer space. This view predates Trump, with the Obama administration banning coordination of China’s national space agency with NASA in 2011, and excluding China from participating in the international space station.
• More attention should be focused on America’s emerging “Star Wars” against China. Space Force is a new strategic frontier for American militarization, aimed at competitor states such as China, in contravention of international law. The development of outer space exploration and technology ought only to be for peaceful purposes for “the common heritage of mankind.”
• [Editor’s Note] Can the Chinese Communist Party be trusted to be peaceful? The CCP has come under the control of the Deep State and President Trump knows this. As the white hat Alliance is in the process of dismantling the Deep State – in America, in China, and everywhere else in the world – the Deep State would like nothing better than to trigger a global war in order to maintain its long-standing global domination. The Deep State-controlled CCP is desperate as the Chinese people, and even President Xi Jinping himself, see the Chinese government’s corruption and are turning against the established Communist Party. So as things come to a head now in this five-dimensional chess game, Trump and the US military may have a very good reason to keep the pressure on Beijing.
A few days ago the news was announced that the Trump administration was preparing to add an additional 89 Chinese companies to the commerce department’s entity list, prohibiting them from acquiring U.S.-made components and technologies without approval and claiming they are linked to the military and represent a “national security threat.” The firms were noticeably all in the aerospace industry, with an obvious goal of attempting to stifle China’s own development in this sector and force Beijing to be reliant on U.S. firms such as Boeing. Given the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) (a firm being listed) is launching its own domestically made alternative to the 737, the C919, next year, it is difficult to see the move in any other light. It’s obvious protectionism.
But there is another angle, a strategic one too, of outer space. The Trump administration has long made a decision that China represents a competitor in space exploration and technology, and claimed falsely that Beijing seeks to militarize the cosmos as a pretext for their own militarization plans, contravening the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which pledges that space and “celestial bodies” may only be used for “peaceful development” and not military means.
In doing so, the administration has over the past few years put in place plans to transform space into the newest “strategic frontier” and now, as China launches Chang’e-5, seeks to undermine China’s entire aerospace industry to gain the upper hand. As a result, this is a sphere worth watching.
The U.S. “Space Force”.
In 2018, Trump announced the creation of a “U.S. space force” or “space command.” Although the idea was ridiculed for sounding like something out of a science fiction novel, it is, in fact, something serious. The strategic objectives of such a command is, as is stated on its website, “to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force.” That is the militarization of outer space. This includes things such as satellite-orientated warfare and missile technology. The United States wants to gain the upper hand in this sphere in order to maintain unchallenged military hegemony over the entire world and with that viewpoint comes the designation of China as a “competitor.”
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