An analysis by the Financial Times indicates that Beijing is significantly bolstering its military capabilities in space, including the development of advanced technologies to capture or destroy satellites, amid growing rivalry with Washington and an increasing risk of orbital conflict.
Military manuals and dozens of studies linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), scrutinized by the British newspaper, reveal a clear strategy that encompasses everything from satellite proximity operations to attacks on space infrastructure, and potentially even targets on Earth.
In a 2024 manual cited by the report, Chinese military expert Jiang Lianju observed that the sky is already shrouded in the smoke of a potential conflict, adding that controlling space offers a powerful strategic and military incentive.
This analysis highlights that major powers, including the United States, China, and Russia, have been conducting satellite proximity operations. While such maneuvers are essential for maintenance, they carry inherent offensive potential—a dynamic that Washington has already characterized as “close combat in space.”
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According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the space domain has become central to modern military capabilities, including communications, navigation, and command systems, which heightens the risk that an attack in orbit could paralyze critical infrastructure.
Howard Wang, a researcher at the Washington-based think tank Rand, stated that the core concept of the PLA’s strategy is to strike crucial nodes in an adversary’s network to paralyze decision-making across the entire command chain, from data collection and transmission to analysis and execution.
Beijing has invested heavily in technologies such as lasers, electronic jamming, and satellites capable of moving other objects into distant orbits, as well as in-orbit refueling and capture systems. In 2022, the Chinese satellite Shijian-21 utilized a robotic arm to tow an inactive satellite into a higher orbit, a demonstration of capability that alarmed U.S. military officials.
More recently, several Chinese satellites performed coordinated maneuvers in geostationary orbit, behavior that the United States has compared to combat exercises. The research suggests that Chinese military doctrine envisions different phases in a potential space conflict, including deterrence operations like public demonstrations of power or satellite repositioning, space blockades, and direct attacks on adversary systems.
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These operations could involve electronic warfare, cyberattacks, or directed-energy weapons designed to degrade an opponent’s command and communication capabilities without causing immediate escalation. In more advanced scenarios, the PLA studies admit the possibility of direct satellite destruction or even terrestrial infrastructure attacks launched from space, reflecting an increasing integration between space and conventional warfare domains.
The military space race is also accelerating in the low Earth orbit segment, where the proliferation of satellites, driven by constellations like Starlink, is fundamentally transforming the strategic environment. As Howard Wang noted, both Washington and Beijing are seeking to bolster the resilience of their space systems by increasing the number of satellites to reduce vulnerability to targeted attacks.
With China planning to launch more than 37,000 new satellites by 2030 in an attempt to secure dominance, Western officials remain deeply concerned. As one official cited by the Financial Times put it, we are in an environment where no one has fought a war before, and the potential for something to go wrong very quickly is enormous.
