NASA has been at the forefront of American Spacepower and exploration for decades, but there is also a retreat from funding NASA and related advisory committees of private and public sector leaders that help push forward progress in space for America (Foust, 2025). This isn’t to say that America is not attempting to shape International Relations in its own image and hold on to its hegemon, Trump believes he can take a more “Realpolitik” approach to diplomacy (Dolman, 2002, L#3894) and is applying old school, brown water tactics to spacepower (Dolman, 2012, #82) with the advent and creation of the “Golden Dome” space defense system, but this does not, a “Space Race” make.
What about from the Chinese perspective? China has been a silent and background member of the first (and arguably only) Space Race since nearly the USA and USSR have been a part of it. China’s space program began when scientist Qian Xuesen was returned to China from the United States (Drozhaschikh, 2018, #176). One of the major differences between China and the USSR/USA was that China viewed space systems (like satellites) as a way to modernize and develop their economy, especially when it came to communications that were able to enable government operations and education and also observational satellites to monitor weather and optimize agriculture (Drozhaschikh, 2018, #178). In modern times there has been a drastic uptick in the amount of space related development in China, but it is not necessarily related to a “Space Race”. China sees these developments as a natural evolution of their earlier space objectives of increasing national prestige and power from a geographic and economic standpoint (Husain, 2024). This rapid development can also be attributed to the rise in big data and AI systems that are revolutionizing how fast complex systems can be built and integrate hardware with software and China has invested heavily in this infrastructure (Wang & Kroeber, 2025). This has inevitably bled over into their military strategy and technology, and has become an integral part of how the PLA views its operations (Husain, 2024). US restrictions on China to prevent their AI technology from becoming on par with US AI technology has actually caused China to become more resourceful in developing AI, which in turn has given them an advantage in resource constrained space environments where every watt of power used counts (Wang & Kroeber, 2025). America only has a 15% energy reserve while China has a 100% energy reserve that could continue to power high tech and energy hungry AI resources in the rapidly developing sector (Horowitz & Kahn, 2025).
It is better to view the current competition of China vs the USA not as a “Space Race” but as the natural output of a rising power compared to a declining power, or at least one that is looking to hold onto the post Cold War 20th century power structure in which it enjoyed its hegemonic advantage (Carlson, 2020, L#131). China on the other hand has the advantage of time on its side, it is investing heavily into modernizing its infrastructure to combat future issues of energy consumption of data centers and network farms, both terrestrially and in space with Space Based Solar Power (Carlson, 2020, L#621), it is competing with GLONASS and GPS with its BeiDou constellation (Drozhaschikh, 2018, #178). These could hardly be considered elements of a “Space Race” as defined earlier, these are investments, at least on the part of China, while America’s reasons for space exploration could potentially fall within the bounds of a “Space Race”.
A main point that could define America’s space initiatives as engaging in a race is NASA acting administrator and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy making a point of timelines being dependent on when China plans to land on the moon (Foust, 2025). America is running a short sprint alongside China’s marathon and pretending like we are ahead. China has been making these plans since 1949 and have been hitting their milestones regularly since that time (Pillsbury, 2016, #19). America has aimed to slow down Chinese progress industrially, but has ultimately accidentally done the opposite by making them more resourceful.
America does have reason to be concerned about Chinese Space Supremacy, so even if deadlines are arbitrary, they help to establish goals. Even the more innocuous technologies like communications systems and integrated networks are becoming more prevalent in the determination of great powers. China is aiming to deploy a communications array (Guowang LEO network) that could break SpaceX’s monopoly on providing global satellite based internet access and provide it at a lower cost or even for free (Jones, 2025). Bill Clinton once stated controlling the internet is like “trying to staple jello to a wall”, but China has actually found the internet to be an amazing tool for control, social manipulation, and surveillance, and building out LEO satellite networks essentially means it can take its surveillance state worldwide (Wang & Kroeber, 2025).
There is a potential argument that America in certain aspects is in a Space Race against the shadow of China and is seeing ground ceded on a daily basis, but what is interesting is that this ground isn’t being ceded in the Space domain, but the domain of Software, Hardware, Cybersecurity, Big Data, AI, and advanced manufacturing. All of these are the bellwether of a dominant future world economy where space infrastructure will be like the advent of littorals to sail, coal to steam, oil to combustion, or Ford to the automobile. China is in a goal oriented holistic march towards regional dominance based on well crafted decades old plans and are slowly, but surely starting to surpass America.
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