China is fast challenging the United States' monopoly in space as new remote-sensing satellites have allowed Beijing to monitor American military assets globally.
"The PLA has rapidly advanced in space in a way that few people can really appreciate," Major General Gregory J. Gagnon, the Space Force's deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on May 2.
The Space Force, established by former President Donald Trump, faces challenges posed by China's rapidly transforming space capabilities.
Space has emerged as a contested domain integral to modern military operations, as countries have sought to track each other's military assets from space. Military strategists believe satellites and space-based weapons could be used to fire the first shot in future conflicts. Satellites could be used to jam an opponent's signals during an escalation of military tensions.
China established its version of the Space Force in 2015, which was placed under the hierarchy of the People's Liberation Army's Strategic Support Force (SSF). Chinese President Xi Jinping dissolved the SSF last month, and a new force called the Information Support Force was constituted to merge the SSF's existing remit with it.
China has added over 400 satellites in the past two years, from which more than half have the capability to track objects on Earth, Gagnon said at the Mitchell Institute.
"They will now—in a way that we're not comfortable talking about in America—they will be inside a rapidly expanding weapons engagement zone," Gagnon added.
Gagnon explained that China can now track U.S. military assets even when they are mobile, challenging U.S. monopoly on long-range targeting. The data collected by China's satellites can provide a precise location of military vessels on the move at sea, making their subsequent targeting during conflict easier, according to Gagnon.
"Few countries have that advantage," Gagnon said.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Space Force and the U.S. State Department for comment via email.
This isn't the first time a senior U.S. Space Force official has warned about China's growing space capability.
General Bradley Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations at the U.S. Space Force, recently raised an alarm about China's exponential growth in satellite-based surveillance capability.
"The PRC has more than 470 [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] satellites feeding a robust sensor-shooter kill web," Saltzman said in March at the Mitchell Institute's Spacepower Security Forum, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The rapidly declining cost of satellite launches has also spurred a revolution in China's private satellite companies launching new satellites. Chinese companies can now share near-accurate satellite imagery of U.S. military assets on land and at sea.
In 2023, Chinese companies launched 120 commercial satellites, which made up 54 percent of all satellites sent into orbit last year, according to China's state-run news agency Xinhua.
Mino Space, a Beijing-based satellite company, recently published the images of the U.S. Norfolk Naval Base captured with its Taijing 4-03 satellite. Mino Space has emerged as a leading Chinese satellite imagery provider that occasionally showcases its satellite capability by publishing the latest visuals of U.S. military bases and assets.
Mizar Vision, a Chinese satellite imagery provider launched in 2021, has been sharing daily satellite imagery of the military assets participating in the U.S.-Philippines joint exercise, Balikatan, over the past weeks on X-like Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Mizar is closely tracking the movements of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, currently deployed in the South China Sea for joint exercises with the Philippines. It has also shared imagery of military activity around Taiwan and Japan over the past weeks.
Newsweek contacted Mino Space and Mizar Vision for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Aadil Brar is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian ... Read more
