China calls the US a ‘competitor’ in moon race for first time, from a position of strength

China has outlined its lunar ambitions in a new plan, and for the first time has acknowledged it is in a race for the moon with the US

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Just weeks after China’s Chang’e-6 probe landed on the far side of the moon, the Chinese space agency has acknowledged it is in a moon race with the US. Photo: CNSA

Stephen Chenin Beijing

Published: 6:00pm, 21 Jun 2024

China said it would never compete with the US on the moon. Now it has changed its mind.

In a new strategic lunar plan, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has defined the United States as a competitor for the first time, signifying a big shift from the nation’s long-held discreet space policy to a position of rapidly growing strength.

Human exploration of the moon has always been competitive. It began with the tug of war between America and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

“In the historical context of that period, the race to demonstrate superior political strength made lunar exploration unsustainable,” the plan said.

“It is foreseeable that in the next 20 to 30 years, China’s International Lunar Research Station and the US Artemis programme will compete in terms of technology and operational efficiency on the same historical stage and at the same geographical location (the south pole of the moon),” it said.

The new plan, “Strategic Concept of Resource Utilisation Development Route of the International Lunar Research Station”, was written under the leadership of Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of CNSA’s Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Centre, and published in the Chinese Journal of Astronautics in April.