The CMSA will install two more modules by the end of this year to complete the construction of the space station. China is also the only country to have sent a land rover to the dark side of the moon and the second to land a rover on Mars. These astronomical achievements, which serve the future of mankind, are also a challenge to the United States (U.S.) in the space race.

It is said that China’s dreams of space have no bounds. In fact, China has built the world’s largest radio telescope, indicating its ambitions for space exploration. The government of China has recently been using its economic growth and rising gross domestic product (GDP) as the basis for investment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which includes the fields of space and astronomy. There is a good reason for this: the National Space Society (NSS) argues that everything depends on space. For example, the Internet, weather monitoring systems, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) are all byproducts of space technology. Furthermore, humans might seek resources from space in the future, meaning that the space research conducted by developed countries is practical.

The One Man Who Powered the Entire Chinese Space Program

Unbeknownst to many people, there is an interesting story of how China started its space program so that it could develop into its current state – it is the story of one man, Qian Xuesen. Qian, who lived his entire life in the U.S., studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and worked at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) under one of the most widely recognized aerospace engineers, Theodore von Karman. Although Qian established the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and worked on the Manhattan Project, he faced a lot of racism.

His career in the U.S. came to a halt when China became fully communist in 1949, after which he was suspected to be a communist himself and exiled to China in 1955. There, he founded the missile and space program, which helped China build its space station, construct its missile weapons, and land on the moon. He is considered the father of China’s space and missile programs. Deporting Qian on anti-communist grounds was probably one of the biggest mistakes that the U.S. has made, with journalist Kavita Puri stating that Qian helped two superpowers set foot on the moon, yet his story is remembered only in China.

Advancing Science with Rivalries: the U.S.–China Space War

In science, rivalries might not be clean fights, but they are not inherently bad. If Qian was not exiled, he could have ensured that the U.S. was the sole space superpower in the 21st century. Scientists will often compete to maximize their research output to serve national interests, just like Qian did. However, these national interests are also international because scientists can continue their research and rely on competitors to advance both science and technology. In fact, it was the U.S.–Soviet rivalry of the 1950s and 1960s that led to the first man in space, and eventually the moon. Countries will always compete to be the “first” in science, and now, there is another race to develop space technologies.

Back in 2011, the U.S. Congress passed a law banning National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) from collaborating and sharing space-related data with China. Moreover, the law also barred China from becoming a partner in the International Space Station (ISS), meaning that no Chinese national could step foot on it. This decision led China to build the Tiangong space station. Luckily for China, NASA announced this year that it will deorbit the ISS in 2031, meaning that the Tiangong stands a chance to become the biggest space station thereafter.

Future Implications of the Space Race

According to Professor Aaron Bateman (Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University), “China will likely continue to prioritize the development of space technologies for both military and civil missions. For Beijing, civil space projects are a vehicle for signaling technological sophistication and attempting to elevate Beijing's prestige on the world stage. At this same time, China is investing in advanced space technologies for intelligence, command and control, and early warning (among others), in addition to creating weapons that can be used to destroy space systems. Some platforms, like space stations, could serve both civil and military needs.” In fact, the *Tiangong* space station is being used for social, scientific, and military means.

Americans, on the other hand, have similar military and civil ambitions for space. For instance, SpaceX built the first reusable rocket, while NASA continues to fund the Artemis program, which seeks to re-establish a human presence on the moon. The U.S. also became the first country to fly by Pluto, has explored the farthest object to date, and has orbited a dwarf planet (Ceres). Professor Bateman also argued that the space environment has changed and the new space race between China and the U.S. differs from that between the former Soviet Union–U.S., with “cooperation and competition not mutually exclusive.”

Overall, interest groups within the Pentagon and the Department of Defense (DOD) have reported that China will most likely become the dominant power in space by 2045. Furthermore, it is very likely that, in the same way that the Olympics puts pressure on countries to win gold medals, the U.S. and China will doggedly continue to engage in the space race to accomplish remarkable achievements. This, in turn, will lead to advancements in science. The research already being conducted in space is sure to be just a start in this ambitious space race.