China, with Russia's help, wants to build a base on the moon.
If the Chinese regime succeeds in building the first facility there, it will try to deny to others the ability to land on the lunar surface. The People's Republic of China in fact intends to annex the near parts of the solar system.
As Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center pointed out to this author, Chinese control of the moon would confer control of Cis-Lunar space, the portion of space between the Earth and the moon. Control of Cis-Lunar space would give a country the ability to shoot down or otherwise disable deep-space satellites, which are essential for, among other things, the early warning of ballistic missile attacks.
Beijing and Moscow understand all this. In 2021, Roscosmos, Russia's space agency and the China National Space Administration agreed to build a shared moon base, to be named the International Lunar Research Station.
Beijing and Moscow are making progress. "Today, we are seriously considering a project to deliver to the moon and mount a power reactor there jointly with our Chinese partners somewhere between 2033 and 2035," said Yury Borisov, the CEO of Roscosmos, on March 5 to TASS.
China and Russia are contemplating nuclear power because, Borisov explained, solar panels would not be able to provide sufficient energy to the installation. The two countries, he said, will build the reactor "without the presence of humans." He revealed that they were "almost ready."
China and Russia plan to build their station at the moon's coveted south pole, which is in constant shade.
Chinese efforts to build the base have been determined and successful. China has had a moon presence since 2013, when Chang'e-3 put both a lander and rover on the surface. Chang'e 4, which landed on the moon's far side in January 2019, has been gathering data, presumably for a permanent location.
Moreover, the country this month announced it will launch large, reusable rockets, built by state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., in 2025 and 2026.
Beijing last May announced its intention to land a human on the moon by 2030.
The free world should view Chinese and Russian progress with alarm. China's regime, for instance, has made it clear it intends to annex space.
"The universe is an ocean, the moon is the Diaoyu Islands, Mars is Huangyan Island," said Ye Peijian in 2017, referring to features in the East China and South China Seas. "If we don't go there now even though we're capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won't be able to go even if you want to."
Ye, the head of China's lunar program then, essentially issued a warning, because he compared the near heavenly bodies to islands and outcroppings that Beijing claims as sovereign territory.
In short, Ye Peijian made it clear that Beijing intends to exclude others from the moon, among other places, if it is in a position to do so.
The message has not been lost on NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, who in January of last year told Politico, referring to China, that "we better watch out that they don't get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research." Why? "It is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, 'Keep out, we're here, this is our territory.' "
The moon's south pole is some of the most valuable real estate in the solar system.
"At the south pole, the lunar ice—water—can be used to both hydrate thirsty Chinese taikonauts and Russian cosmonauts and be converted into rocket fuel for missions to Mars," Brandon Weichert, the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, told Gatestone.
"By capitalizing on this pristine real estate on the moon, China would dominate the most resource-rich, human-friendly region before the Americans could even tie on their space boots," he says. "It would be akin to staking out all the water holes in the desert."
The American-led Artemis program also contemplates a base at the south pole. NASA, unfortunately, has been pushing back Artemis timetables.
Domination of the moon's south pole would give China a big head start on dominating nearby planets as well. As Weichert notes, "A human base at the southern pole of the moon could be used as a launching point to get humans more quickly—and cheaply—to Mars and beyond, something that China's Communist Party obviously desires."
Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits "national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means," but when has a treaty obligation ever stopped the People's Republic from doing whatever it wants?
So who wants to live under a red moon in a universe also painted red by China's Communists?
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China and China Is Going to War, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
