https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18793/china-threatens-to-destroy-elon-musk-starlink
Chinese military researchers are threatening that Musk’s Starlink satellites must be destroyed. The problem, however, does not appear so much to be the fear of collision, but rather that China believes that Starlink could be used for military purposes and thereby threaten what China calls its national security.
“[A] combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation’s operating system.” — Five senior scientists in China’s defense industry, led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications, under the People Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Strategic Support Force, by Stephen Chen, scmp.com, May 25,2022
Soft kill methods target software and operating systems of the satellites, whereas hard kill methods physically destroy the satellites….
Unsurprisingly, China has eagerly copied Elon Musk’s SpaceX to achieve its own space ambitions: China’s Long March 2C rocket, for instance, which China launched in the summer of 2019, had parts that were “virtually identical” to those that are used to steer the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
China’s threats against Musk’s Starlink is more proof that the country is not ready to let anyone stand in the way of its “fierce space game”, as China puts it.
In addition… China is forging ahead with a number of projects that will significantly accelerate the country’s space capabilities.
China has reportedly sped up its program to launch a solar power plant in space. The purpose of the plant is to transmit electricity to earth by converting solar energy to microwaves or laser and directing the energy to Earth, according to the South China Morning Post… It is probable that China got the idea from the US; NASA reportedly proposed a similar plan more than two decades ago but never went on to develop it.
China’s explicit goal is to become the world’s leading space power by 2045. It is important to keep in mind that China’s space program – even what might look like harmless, civil aspects of space exploration… – is heavily militarized.
Chinese military researchers recently called for the destruction of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, an extraordinary threat for a state to make against a private foreign enterprise.
In December 2021, China filed a complaint with the United Nations, claiming that two of Musk’s Starlink satellites had nearly collided with the Tianhe module of its Tiangong Space Station — in April and October of 2021– and that Chinese astronauts had been forced to maneuver the module of the station to avoid the collision. Starlink is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the satellites are part of a plan to make internet coverage from the satellites available worldwide, with the goal of launching nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
