Internal link- Peaceful rise

Internal link- Peaceful rise

For the last few years China is using its space industry to extend its Soft-Power. It is establishing linkages in the space arena with countries in Africa and South America, including Nigeria, Venezuela, and Brazil. China’s ultimate objectives are the natural resources and markets in these parts of the world. China is talking its friendship with Pakistan to a higher plane by helping the latter in the space field as well. It signed an agreement with Pakistan a fortnight back, granting a $200 million loan for satellite construction. China has also promised Bolivia help in developing its space programme within three years and in the launch of its first satellite. It has also been reported that China would be building and launching a communications satellite for Laos.

China is strategically positioning itself as a focal point for all space-related activities, from providing financial assistance to manufacturing, and launching facilities for states in Asia, Africa and South America. This approach has multiple benefits – an increase in China’s global footprint, flow of benefits to the Chinese space industry, experimentation with new technologies, and win friends.
The space domain is a critical source of diplomatic influence for China

East Asian Strategic Review 2008 (“The national Institute for Defense Studies Japan” Chapter 1: China’s Space Development— A Tool for Enhancing National Strength and Prestige, http://www.nids.go.jp/english/publication/east-asian/pdf/2008/east-asian_e2008_01.pdf)

In addition to serving national security and domestic civilian use of space, China’s space activities are also being used as a tool for diplomacy. The nation’s space- related international cooperation efforts, which began with a bilateral arrangement for satellite development, have blossomed to include the establishment of satellite tracking stations and a leading role in multilateral frameworks. China’s pursuit of such international cooperation is expected to expand in the future, and will likely help the nation to secure its necessary supply of resources and energy. In light of this posture and China’s growing efforts to provide African nations with official development assistance and debt relief, projects like the China-Nigeria partnership in communication satellite development and launches can be seen as examples of China’s exploitation of space activities as a diplomatic tool.
Space program leads to a “peaceful” rise

Chambers 09 (Rob, Naval Postgraduate school, revised by Moltz, Dr. James Clay, Naval Postgraduate School, “China’s Space Prgoram: A New Tool For PRC “Soft Power” In International Relations?” http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2009/Mar/09Mar_Chambers.pdf)

Clearly, for a nation to successfully achieve manned spaceflight is a tremendous accomplishment with significant second-order impacts. Dean Cheng, CNA China space expert, notes, “At the very least it seems the manned programme is about international prestige. China’s space capability says to the world, ‘We are an advanced nation’”.173 Cheng also asserts that “Another driver is diplomacy. A wide-ranging space programme showed the rest of the world that China had arrived on the international stage. That fits with hosting the Olympics, that fits with a burgeoning economy, and that fits with the world’s largest foreign capital reserves”.174 William Burrows offers the label of “international power,” and that for China to develop such a complex, multi-faceted program with ambitions for a space station and the Moon “requires a huge, advanced scientific and technological base that suggests a stable and powerful political system; what used to be called national ‘might’”.1