James Frelk & Chris Williams
Like previous rivalries between nation-states throughout history, the U.S. and PRC are competing for political prestige, international influence, scientific knowledge, technological advancement, economic prosperity, and military power. The PRC sees itself in a new space race with America that it intends to win. The Sino-American rivalry to influence or control the physical and human geography of the world now extends from Earth to cislunar space – the line between the Earth and the Moon or the Moon’s orbit – and is a direct outgrowth of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aim to reestablish China as the world’s dominant power. China considers space a “critical domain in international strategic competition.”
China is conducting operations in cislunar space and has even more ambitious future space plans. Lagrange points, lunar transfer orbits, lunar orbits, and the Moon’s surface are “strategic key points” and “strategic thoroughfares” in cislunar space from which China could exert influence in or control over the Earth- Moon system.
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