Clarence Leong
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
Beijing is aware that the U.S. is speeding ahead with SpaceX being the prime example. and it feels a sense of urgency to catch up.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
Beijing is aware that the U.S. is speeding ahead with SpaceX being the prime example, and it feels a sense of urgency to catch up. So the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has been emphasizing on high-quality development which is anything from electric vehicles to quantum computing and any sort of next generation technology. And space is also part of this.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
So local governments in China have heed the call, so to speak, and invest money in promising commercial space companies to have them set up factories in their locales. There are a few rockets designed with reusability in mind, developed by commercial companies that are going for their maiden flights this year. So by the end of this year, we could well have the first reusable Chinese rocket.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
And at the same time, China is also trying to build its own Starlink. They now have two such systems being built. SpaceX's Starlink has about 7,000 satellites already up there in orbit. And so it's still far behind, but they are intent on catching up and building up this capacity.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
So Beijing has been proud of its space program for many years. And the orbital resources are finite. So it's getting more crowded by the day. And the slower they get this off ground, literally, the more difficult it will be for them to compete. So there is an urgency there. And China's space industry is still very much state-driven. And we don't really see signs of it changing anytime soon.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
But the thing is, a state-run company and a commercial company operate on very different principles. And the private companies are forced to be efficient. They're forced to be innovative. And perhaps it can help China develop the industry or come up with new technology faster.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
And Beijing sees a point in nurturing these private space companies and having them complement what is already happening in the space sector.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
In China, the space program has had successes in some aspects and in some other aspects it's further behind and at this point doesn't pose that big of a challenge. So for example, with reusable rockets, China has yet to develop a rocket that can be reusable. They haven't successfully landed a booster yet.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
And where SpaceX is right now is they've been able to develop or master this technology where they can reuse a booster more than 20 times, right? And last year, SpaceX accounted for more than half of the whole world's number of launches in total.
WSJ What’s News
Growing Debt, Tariffs Weigh on U.S. Outlook
But in other regards, China is quite successful with not only being the first to bring back sample from the far side of the moon, but they are also planning to send human to the surface of the moon by the end of this decade. So then again, that causes some worries in the U.S. that China could pull off a pretty symbolic space mission before the U.S. does.