Bridging the Gap: Rethinking US-China Space Policy

Abbreviated Section of Wolf Agreement (2011) Page 125, Section 539:

“None of the funds made available by this act (CJS Appropriations) may be used for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company unless such activities are specifically authorized by law. This limitation shall also apply to any funds used to effectuate the hosting of official Chinese visitors at facilities belonging to or utilized by NASA.”

Buried in the extensive language of the 2011 annual commerce, justice, and science appropriations bill lies a small subsection that directly contributed to the potential ignition of a new era of international space race. Representative Frank Wolf’s (R-VA) amendment essentially restricts NASA from collaborating directly with the Chinese Space Agency or any Chinese-owned company on space technology or exploration endeavors. At the time this was reasonable as the United States dominated the aerospace industry. 2011 marked the retirement of the wildly successful Space Shuttle Program following the final mission of Space Shuttle Atlantis on July 21st, 2011. The U.S. also hosted the 27th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year, further cementing the station’s technological merit into the global hall of fame of human innovations.?

In the east, China just became not only the largest U.S. Foreign Creditor but also the world’s second-largest economy in 2010, with only the United States ahead. However, their space program was still considerably inferior to NASA and the U.S. private sector. By implementing this amendment, the U.S. government intended to stifle its space program by leveraging the necessity for an improvement in the Chinese human rights record. Unfortunately, in the eight years since the amendment’s first iteration, this improvement has not occurred and China’s global influence and space capabilities have only grown exponentially.

Fast forward to 2022: While excluded from many western space activities involving the U.S., China was forced out of contributions to engineering feats such as the ISS and created parallel capabilities such as their own space station recognized as Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2, which is now fully operational. Beyond the Chinese Space Agency’s aerospace development, the Chinese private sector is beginning to offer not only successful but economical launch providers, further positioning itself to be a leading partner nation for future space activities.

As NASA currently is making a massive PR push towards projects such as Artemis, and Lunar Gateway in the sunset years of the ISS (Expected to retire by 2031), excluding China from these operations is not only a strategic mistake but a grave precedent, leaving the door wide open for international polarization and conflict in the aerospace sector. The gap between the U.S. and China’s space capability is increasingly growing thinner as federal funding for NASA annually falls short creating a heavy reliance on the private sector as an engineering corps that has its own for-profit ventures.?

Instead of focusing all of our Chinese attention on deterrence mediums such as anti-satellite weapons, the United States, specifically the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, has a responsibility to re-imagine the vulnerabilities brought about by the Wolf Amendment. This includes engaging China proactively in civilian space activities while maintaining a concerted effort to consolidate conflict prevention methods in favor of national security where necessary. While national security concerns and strong differences in political values remain between the two countries, space is an increasingly important domain, and focusing our efforts on fostering this relationship is a critical stepping stone for greeting diplomatic relations in the future.

It is no secret that China is a rising global space leader and US policies must begin to recognize this fact and adapt for not only national interest but to prevent an escalation of what could become the second space race, only this time with exponentially greater technology and divergence of political opinion.