China has a secret weapon in the modern day space race that the United States isn’t taking enough advantage of: state and local investment.
Chinese provinces and municipalities such as Shanghai are spending billions and leading the effort to build space infrastructure and satellite systems. For example, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST) was initially founded with capital from Shanghai’s municipal state asset management commission and Shanghai Alliance Investment, a state-owned venture capital firm.
It’s working, at least so far. SSST aims to have a global LEO internet network fully operational by 2030, which sets it up to compete with American companies like Starlink and Amazon Leo. Though there are mounting questions about state and local debt, some of which is the result of duplicative spending.
The U.S. system cannot and should not seek to copy China’s system, but it would be foolish not to learn from what’s working for our biggest competitor.
