Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SUMMARY
The European Union, through a series of collaborative projects, has built a
relationship of trust with China regarding civilian uses of space. The United
States, however, has withheld cooperation with China on space technology,
and the U.S.-Chinese relationship has been characterized by mistrust.
The transatlantic allies should create avenues for U.S.-European dialogue
about China and space, and should also work on joint projects to establish
standards for uses of space that all three parties can respect.
The European Union (EU) and the United States have different responsibilities in Asia,
leading them to different views of China and the use of space. The European Union in Asia
is mainly a civilian power with a negligible security presence but with significant economic
interests. Europe views international cooperation with China on space-related activities and
technologylimited to civilian applications as a medium for building trust.
The United States, in contrast, is the main guarantor of Asias security and increasingly views
China as a competitor in space. Washington believes that because space technology provides
the United States and its allies with an asymmetric military advantage, it should not be shared
with China, and the United States stopped cooperating with China on space technology in the
late 1990s.
Cooperation gives European companies access to the Chinese aerospace market. It also
lets Beijing acquire European technology and know-how, especially for developing its own
satellite system, the BeiDou. The BeiDou has been operational in the Asia-Pacific region since
December 2011, and by 2020 Beijing plans to establish it as a global system with thirty-five
satelliteschallenging not only the GPS, but also Galileo.
In July 2008, the EU officially suspended space cooperation with Beijing due to technology
transfer problems, intellectual property rights infringement, and Chinas use (for BeiDou)
of the frequencies allocated to Galileo. But in 2012, the two sides resumed collaboration
under pressure from Europes aerospace sector and improved Sino-European relations.
Cooperation expanded to include earth observation, space exploration, and space technology
development. Because Europes aerospace sector increasingly depends on exports,
commercial considerations often trump concerns over Asias strategic balance.
WILSON BRIEFS
testing / Shutterstock.com
WILSON BRIEFS
Nicola Casarini
Former Public Policy Scholar
Nicola Casarini is a former Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center and Senior Fellow at
the Institute for International Affairs (IAI) in Rome.
Page 2 image: U.S.-China Navigation Constellations, 2011 from Chinese GPS system (BeiDou) begins service, Dec.
28, 2011, by Adam Gorski. http://blogs.agi.com/agi/2011/12/28/chinese-gps-system-beidou-begins-service/. Reprinted by
permission of AGI.
@TheWilsonCenter
facebook.com/WoodrowWilsonCenter
www.wilsoncenter.org
WILSON BRIEFS