Catching up

摘要

On 25 May China's Ministry of National Defense released a White Paper outlining the dimensions of an increasingly assertive military and geopolitical strategy that stressed the need to develop and demonstrate enhanced capabilities across four domains: maritime, cyber, nuclear weapons, and space. The document's focus on space was not a surprise. Effectively operating in and denying adversary access to space is a founda-tional component of the anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy buttressing China's military modernisation; it is reflective of the understanding within China's government of the criticality of space-related competitions to commercial, civil, and military functions.