China Launches Satellite Network vs Starlink

China plans to launch thousands of broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit to bring hundreds of millions online and sell connections across the globe. But doing so will pit it against SpaceX’s Starlink, Wall Street Journal reported.

Photo Insert: The 13,000-satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband megaconstellation, called “Guowang,” or national network, is desired to bump off Elon Musk’s Starlink and other Western ventures.

The 13,000-satellite low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband megaconstellation, called “Guowang,” or national network, is desired to bump off Elon Musk’s Starlink and other Western ventures, as well as the planned LEO satellites of Taiwan since China may sabotage the 14 cable telecommunications links it has with China and the rest of the world.

Chinese researchers in May published a paper suggesting that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should develop a strategy to counteract, and even destroy, Starlink, Eduardo Jaramillo reported for The China Project.

So, if China attempted an invasion of Taiwan, could Musk’s Starlink really provide the US ally’s defense forces with high-speed satellite internet?

“Yes, if Musk not doing so costs him more,” Dan Harris, an American lawyer with decades of experience practicing in China, told The China Project.

"This is the issue of our era. You’ve got these multinationals that on the surface act like they would like the world to believe they are ethical actors but, really, are mostly tasked with, and view their role as, seeking profits wherever they can.” Guowang is managed by China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., or SatNet.

The firm is a state-owned firm established in April 2021, a year after China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) added satellite internet as an important information infrastructure and a month after China’s 14th Five-Year Plan reiterated the need for high-speed, ubiquitous information infrastructure that promotes “space-Earth integration.”

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