00:00China has launched a plan to boost the commercialization of its space sector.
00:04Now let's take a closer look at how the industry is developing now.
00:08So the value of China's commercial space market reached about US$415 billion in 2025,
00:15and that's a year-on-year increase of over 20%.
00:18By the end of this year, the space industry in China is expected to be worth over US$500 billion.
00:26But in 2025 alone, China carried out 50 commercial launches, more than half of the world's total.
00:33China's commercial space flights have nearly doubled since 2022.
00:37And the country is now home to around 600 commercial space companies, a 20% increase on last year.
00:44I've been speaking to Dr. David Whitehouse, an astronomer and space writer.
00:49I think from what one can see, it is a genuine market shift in China.
00:54Because one thing the Americans have shown with the development of SpaceX and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' group,
01:02is that it's the private companies that often take the directions and move faster and quicker than state-sponsored research.
01:11Now, China has a different way of sponsoring its state space research than the Americans.
01:17They sponsor, obviously, the rockets and the satellites, but they're also aligned with the military.
01:23And the military aspect of this worries the Americans, because that's the reason why they had the Wolf Amendment,
01:30not allowing satellites to be launched from Chinese rockets, despite assurances from Chinese authorities that it would be okay.
01:38However, individual private companies, the new ecology which is emerging to take advantage of easier access to space,
01:47better data processing, better communications, and more use for space applications,
01:53seems to be away from that state-sponsored access.
01:57And therefore, it's garnering more interest with the United States, and particularly with Europe, than has done in the past.
02:06And it's part of a global effort.
02:07I think everybody, China, America, Europe, and indeed South America,
02:12realizes that most of the future of space activity in the future,
02:17and it's a bright future, there are so many aspects of society which will help use space,
02:23and there are so many things you can do in space, that it's the private companies, many of which will
02:27fail,
02:28some of which will succeed spectacularly, which will be taking the brunt of this.
02:33They look towards SpaceX for their inspiration as to how well that company's done.
02:39And perhaps the next SpaceX, or a similar type of private company, might actually come from China.
02:46And we do tend to compare the commercialization of the space industry between China and the United States,
02:53and just now you mentioned SpaceX and also Blue Origin.
02:56And also in China, there are some private companies like iSpace or Lenspace.
03:01So just where does China stand in the global commercial space race now?
03:06China, it has to be said, is slightly behind the Americans,
03:12and probably on a par with the European space agents, European space states.
03:17This is because America has really led the way in terms of these small companies.
03:23But the environment is slightly different outside America.
03:27What happens in America is you get a small space company with a brilliant idea,
03:31and they are bought up by the big guys.
03:33They are accumulated into larger companies.
03:36This is not happening in Europe as much, and it doesn't seem to be happening as much in China.
03:41And what that means is that in China and in Europe, you have more ideas,
03:46you have more speculation, you have more entrepreneurship in order to find a niche in the market and develop it,
03:54whether it's communications, whether it's navigation, whether it's Earth observation,
04:01or developing new ways of getting into space.
04:03It remains to be seen.
04:05The next five years are going to be very important in terms of how the Chinese private space effort
04:12gets on with the Americans and gets on with Europe,
04:15because we all know there are political problems.
04:18There are tensions between these countries.
04:21But if those can be sorted out,
04:25then I think that the thrust of the Chinese space effort,
04:30its long-term commitment, might actually be very helpful globally.
04:34and the Facebook system will keep in place in order to make attention.
04:34the restrictions can be very varied if you wanna pay attention.
04:34and I can challenge that.
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