Summary
A national security-driven spacefaring industrial revolution is beginning. Like past technology-driven revolutions, this will create an inflection point in human culture where it is difficult to predict what will happen beyond that point. Recall life before the smart phone and personal wireless communications. Few on the morning of 29 June 2007—the day that the first iPhone went on sale—appreciated that a personal communications revolution was about to be triggered that would come to dominate our culture socially, politically, and economically. The Wright Brothers success with powered flight, Henry Ford’s mass-produced automobile, and Nicolas Tesla’s alternating current electricity are other examples of technology-driven cultural revolutions.
A spacefaring industrial revolution will now similarly transform our global human culture. Most importantly, it will enable an orderly transition from fossil carbon fuels to primarily space-based solar power delivered globally via wireless power transmission from platforms in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) to astroelectric plants located around the world. This will end energy impoverishment while removing the growing cultural guilt associated with the use of fossil carbon fuels. Done properly, it will also remove the threat of oil warfare that has dominated American national security for decades.
Combined with advanced 3D and robotic manufacturing, artificial intelligence-driven deconstruction and recycling, and humanoid-assistants, these astroelectricity-powered technologies will enable our global community to be “reset” for the 22nd century as a truly sustainable culture—not only on the Earth, but expanding into the solar system. This will be an exciting, engineering-driven, liberty-embracing, spaceward future for the entire world provided America leads this revolution.
For the world, the imperative to undertake an orderly transition to primarily space-based solar power is clear. The world simply lacks sufficient technically recoverable and affordable fossil carbon fuels to sustain middle-class prosperity in industrialized nations while bringing prosperity to the developing world. Tapping the tremendous resources of outer space changes humanity’s future from a zero-sum competition among nations, which will likely end in a warfare-driven disaster, to an expanding period of global sustainable peace and prosperity that the human soul desires.
While some will advocate for a utopian global government to lead this spacefaring industrial revolution, this remains an unachievable idealistic dream. Communist China has its “space dream” that they will lead this revolution, achieving domination of the world in the process. Only the United States and its free-world allies stand to oppose the tyranny of communist global domination (hegemony). Hence, AMERICANS MUST RECOGNIZE THAT COMMUNIST CHINA’S SPACE DREAM IS A THREAT TO THE FREEDOM AND SECURITY OF THE UNITED STATES.
The United States and its allies and communist China and its allies are now in open competition—Cold War II—to lead this spacefaring revolution and, as a consequence, write the political and economic “rule book” for the world in this new era. To be clear, this is not just about exploring the Moon and Mars but will involve a true spacefaring industrial revolution involving millions of people living and working in outer space by the beginning of the next century. The United States will undertake this competition with a foundation of preserving individual liberty and advancing individual opportunity and prosperity through capitalism. Communist China will attempt to establish their spacefaring dominance to achieve global communist hegemony focused on subordinating individual and national liberty to the communist Chinese state.
This posting—the first in a series organized under the banner of Spaceward America—focuses on understanding the true scope of the threat posed by communist China in space. American political and military leaders do not yet appear to understand the full nature of the Chinese threat and what it will take to defeat this threat. In particular, this posting focuses on why the United States military must build an American “Star Fleet” of superior manned space combat capabilities to deter and, if necessary, defeat communist Chinese aggression in space. Future postings will focus on what and how America needs to respond to this threat. Much more needs to be done than most Americans currently anticipate.
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Introduction
All Americans should be aware of the existential threat communism poses to their liberty and prosperity. Communist China, now communism’s standard bearer, is pursuing its “great rejuvenation” plan for achieving global hegemony, replacing the United States as the sole world superpower. An absolutely mandatory part of the communist Chinese plan requires their command of the Earth-Moon System—not just militarily but also industrially and politically. Their focus will be on leading the building of space-based solar power systems, using extraterrestrial resources, to supply much of the world with green astroelectricity. By substantially controlling the world’s future energy supply, communist China will exert substantial control over the world’s economies and, consequently, the world’s political alliances, trade, etc.
Responding to the growing communist Chinese military space threat is the responsibility of the recently re-established U.S. Space Command—the combatant command responsible for outer space. Space Command—or simply SPACECOM—will have a leading role in defining the needs and force structure of the military forces required to, preferably, deter communist Chinese aggression in, through, or from space or defeat this aggression if necessary.
What has not yet generally entered public discussion of SPACECOM is the true extent of the communist Chinese space threat and what SPACECOM will need in terms of warfighting capabilities to defend the United States and its allies. Most have not yet recognized that SPACECOM is essentially America’s “Star Fleet Command” and that it will be defining the “Star Fleet” that America will need to counter communist China in space. To be clear, America’s “Star Fleet” will be substantially manned space combat forces operating throughout the central solar system—and needed far sooner than almost everyone now anticipates.
The national security demands of responding to communist China’s space threat will require reprioritization of federal funding to strengthen America’s aerospace scientific, engineering, and industrial capabilities reminiscent of the “space race” of the 1950s and 1960s. To appreciate why this will be needed, especially by those younger than around 50 years of age, the existential threat posed by communist China must be recognized.
America’s communist threats
Cold War I ended in the late 1980s as the United States-led free world militarily, economically, and morally eroded the will of the communist Soviet Union to continue its drive for global hegemony. A world that had known two competing superpowers since the end of World War II was suddenly left with only one. Of course, this did not end warfare, but within the United States it ended a nearly five-decade anti-communist patriotic focus. As what President Reagan called the “evil empire” faded, so did the American public’s awareness of the threat communism automatically poses to free-minded peoples. The long dormant pro-communist movement within the United States—especially evident within academia—began to reawaken, seeking new generations of students to mislead and domestic political trouble to brew. Evidence of this is now being seen almost daily in the mayhem in major American cities.
In many universities, American students are taught that “evil” communism is a thing of the past, IF the dangers of communism are even taught at all. Hence, now raising alarm that communist China poses an existential threat to the United States has no context for understanding by many younger Americans. For the benefit of these younger generations, a brief history of communism is included in the endnote.
Marxist–Leninist Communism is a totalitarian form of government that places all powers with the leaders of the country’s communist party. Historically, communist revolutionary leaders have falsely labeled their intentions to create a “democratic” form of socialism to beguile undereducated peasants into revolt in order to obtain personal political power. After seizing power, they continue this charade by adopting names and, often, constitutions that appear democratic all the while controlling the country through fear and oppression.
National communism is inherently aggressive and expansionistic. The communist Chinese takeover of free Hong Kong this year is a very good example, as is their threat to invade Taiwan. Such communist aggression has been seen in Eastern Europe after World War II, in Korea, in Vietnam, and in the Americas.
Hong Kong’s takeover—an example of communist Chinese duplicity
In 1985, the British government and the communist Chinese government entered into a treaty to transfer the British colony of Hong Kong to communist Chinese control in 1997 while retaining British administration for an additional 50 years. The purpose of the 50 years was a false hope that communism in mainland China would liberalize over time by adopting western values. It was also a face-saving move by the British government similar to the treaty America negotiated to “end” the Vietnam War.
The treaty was registered with the United Nations. In 1997, the previous 99-year 1898 British–Chinese treaty establishing British rule of Hong Kong was to expire. The 1985 treaty established the conditions for the re-integration of Hong Kong into communist China. The negotiations leading up to this treaty were long and contentious.
A key provision of the treaty was that Hong Kong would retain its legislative system and operate under a crafted “Basic Law”, serving as Hong Kong’s constitution, for a period of 50 years after 1997 until 2047. The Basic Law is a communist Chinese government law that established a “one country—two systems” approach that maintained Hong Kong’s capitalistic economic system, limited self-governance, and fundamental rights of Hong Kong citizens. However, foreign affairs of Hong Kong were to be managed by the communist Chinese government. Since enacted, the Basic Law has not been amended, primarily because the process requires two-thirds approval of multiple bodies including the Hong Kong elected legislature.
A provision of the Basic Law requires that Hong Kong enact national security laws addressing treason, sedition, etc. An attempt to enact such a law in 2003 was permanently tabled after widespread protest. This was a political expression by the free Chinese in Hong Kong that they did not want to surrender their freedoms to communist control. Noting that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was founded in 1921, in May 2020, the communist Chinese government passed and imposed a new Hong Kong security law primarily focused on civil opposition to the communist government. The law abolishes the “one country–two systems” that was guaranteed by treaty until 2047. Under this new law, resistance to communist oppression is a crime punishable by life imprisonment, if not just being “arrested and disappeared”. This is consistent with the core tenant of Marxist–Leninist communism of the near-absolute control by the central government of the people through tyranny, not the rule of law.
The “great rejuvenation” of China—its plan for conquest
Under Xi Jinping, the General Secretary for life of the CCP, the CCP is using all means to achieve a “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation“—seeking to return China to being the world’s preeminent nation that Chinese political mythology believes it held many centuries ago but abandoned.
As Xi frames it, communist China’s “great rejuvenation” will enable China to “move closer to the center of the world stage and to make a greater contribution to humankind”. This is just a less forward way of saying what Soviet communist leader Khrushchev said in 1956 of the Soviet–American Cold War : an “intense economic, political, and ideological struggle between the proletariat and the aggressive forces of imperialism in the world arena.” Communist China has triggered a new cold war to achieve its “great rejuvenation”.
In 2017, President Trump visited communist China in what appeared to Americans back home to be a friendly visit. In private, Xi Jinping and other senior officials made it very clear that the United States was being swept aside by the rapid rise of communist China. Of this encounter, National Security Advisor to President Trump Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster (U.S. Army, ret.) wrote that communist Chinese leaders clearly conveyed “that the U.S. role in the future global economy would merely be to provide China with raw materials, agricultural products, and energy to fuel its production of the world’s cutting-edge industrial and consumer products.”
To achieve “rejuvenation”, communist China has a three-part strategy prominently documented in official communist Chinese publications and speeches.
The first part is communist China’s “military–civil fusion” policy. Beginning in 2014, the National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic mandated that all Chinese citizens support the gathering of intelligence. “Any organization or citizen shall support, assist with, and collaborate with the state intelligence work in accordance with the law, and keep the secrets of the national intelligence work known to the public.” For Americans, American companies, and American universities, all contacts with any communist Chinese national is an opportunity for them to fulfill their mandate to obtain useful intelligence (especially advanced technology, intellectual property, and personal data). The military–civil fusion policy demands that communist Chinese citizens be spies and thieves.
The second part of communist China’s strategy is their oddly named “Belt and Road” initiative. Simply put, China is creating a debt trap for many third-world countries. China “sells” large infrastructure improvement projects based on expectations of broad economic development. These are financed by loans held by CCP-controlled Chinese banks. When the increased prosperity fails to materialize, China swaps the debt for equity in the infrastructure built in locations of strategic importance to China.
In 2017, such a debt–equity swap gave communist China a 99-year lease on a Sri Lanka port off the tip of India. The port sits abreast the oil supply lanes from the Middle East, as well as shipping lanes serving India with whom communist China has an increasingly contentious relationship. A communist Chinese submarine had already visited the port in 2014 showing this to be the true purpose for China’s interest in the port. This can only be seen as a clear provocation by communist China against India.
Communist China has been courting political and economic influence in developing nations for many years, creating financial dependencies that it may now exploit. The Wuhan (COVID-19) virus pandemic’s effect on the developing world’s economy may trigger more such debt–equity deals (more “wins” in communist China’s reach for global dominance).
The third part of communist China’s strategy is achieving dominance in key 21st century industries through forced technology sharing, intellectual property theft, requiring majority communist Chinese ownership in mandatory joint ventures in most industries, and purchasing or investing in key foreign technology companies during down turns in the economy such as the world is now experiencing. For decades, western companies and investors accepted these actions as the price to be paid for wanting to do business in the growing mainland Chinese consumer market or gaining access to communist Chinese capital. Intellectual property theft has particularly long been ignored by many past U.S. presidential administrations, seeking to foster improved relations with communist China, and with American business owners—rich potential campaign contributors—investing in China.
While communist Chinese leaders use phrases such as “great rejuvenation” so as to not directly challenge the pacifist rhetoric of American progressive/socialist politicians and globalist investors, they clearly mean domination. The Cold War now underway is of communist China’s making. Should America lose Cold War II, it will have dire consequences, just as would have occurred with the loss of the first Cold War to the communist Soviet Union.
The growing communist Chinese space threat
The previous discussion makes clear that the Communist Chinese Party will let nothing stand in its way of achieving the long-sought communist goal of global hegemony. Americans in the 1950s, with the horrors of warfare still very fresh in the nation’s political memory, came to fully understand the danger of the Soviet Union after the repression of the Hungarian Revolt and the “surprise” of the Soviet Sputnik satellite launch. Americans now need to recognize the danger of the CCP’s drive for global hegemony as it relates to the coming space industrial revolution.
Communist Chinese actions in the South China Sea portend its future actions in space
The South China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean encompassing about 3.6 million square kilometers (1.4 million square miles) stretching southward from the Strait of Taiwan along the coasts of mainland China and Vietnam. Both the communist People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan had vaguely but not formally claimed sovereignty over most of the sea since 1949. Other nations claim sovereignty over significant portions. Fishing and undersea oil and natural gas resources make the sea a valuable economic region. Of further importance is that about one-half of the global marine shipping (including oil), as well as significant air travel, traverses the South China Sea.
Within the contested Spratly Islands, well south of communist China, China has been building artificial sand islands since 2013. The purpose is to convert barren reefs into land that can “sustain human habitation”. Seven such islands have or are being built within the Spratly Islands. The largest natural island, Taiping, administered by the Republic of China on Taiwan, has only 44 hectares of natural land. Communist China has now built over 13 square kilometers of sand islands. Three have airfields. Communist China now claims, “indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters”.
In 1982, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was finalized. In 1994, the treaty came into force. As of 2016, 167 countries have signed onto the convention, accepting its terms for national maritime claims of sovereignty and use of marine natural resources. Communist China ratified UNCLOS in 1996.
The United States did not ratify this treaty primarily due to provisions on seabed mining beyond territorial waters and mandatory technology transfer. For other provisions, including the right of passage through and above international waters, the United States complies with the convention.
UNCLOS establishes two areas of national control over the ocean. Each coastal nation can assert sovereignty out to a distance of 12 nautical miles (nm) from the coast or outlying inhabited islands. To a distance of 200 nm, the nation may control the economic recovery of natural resources (e.g., fisheries and oil). Such areas are referred to as Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). However, these waters and airspace above remain open to peaceful transit by all nations.
It now appears that by building the sand islands and inhabiting them with communist Chinese citizens, communist China acted to create new communist Chinese territory within formerly international waters and, then, claim an EEZ surrounding each inhabited island. The positioning of the sand islands and the 200 nm reach of the EEZs would cover much of that part of the South China Sea. (Similar actions are also underway in the north part of the Sea.) Further, communist China asserts that it can control the EEZs as if they were 12-nm territorial waters, meaning they intend to control air and sea transit.
In 2016, an UNCLOS arbitration tribunal ruled that communist China could claim no more than the 12 nm surrounding just three of the sand islands it had built and that some reclamation work was violating the Philippines’ existing EEZ. It also ruled that the broad sweep of an historical claim of communist Chinese sovereignty over most of the South China Sea had “no legal basis”. Communist China’s apparent attempt to use the UNCLOS to legalize their claimed extensive EEZ’s surrounding the sand islands had failed. In response, Communist China said the ruling was “null and void”.
In the midst of the CCP-facilitated COVID-19 virus pandemic, a new “administrative center” was created on a new sand island in the Spratly Islands group. Another was created in a separate disputed group of islands in the north. The intent of these actions is to assert sovereignty now that communist China has rejected UNCLOS. This happened while the Trump administration was engaged in controlling the spread and deadly impact of the COVID-19 virus. It also happened as two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers used to patrol the South China Sea were waylaid—one by scheduled maintenance and the other by the crew being infected with the COVID-19 virus.
On 13 July 2020, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a “U.S. Position on Maritime Claims in the South China Sea”. The statement is quoted below in full because this provides precedence should communist China assert similar claims in outer space in violation of international treaties.
“The United States champions a free and open Indo-Pacific. Today we are strengthening U.S. policy in a vital, contentious part of that region — the South China Sea. We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.
“In the South China Sea, we seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes. We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners who have long endorsed a rules-based international order.
“These shared interests have come under unprecedented threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with “might makes right.” Beijing’s approach has been clear for years. In 2010, then-PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his ASEAN counterparts that “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.” The PRC’s predatory world view has no place in the 21st century.
“The PRC has no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its will on the region. Beijing has offered no coherent legal basis for its “Nine-Dashed Line” claim in the South China Sea since formally announcing it in 2009. In a unanimous decision on July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention – to which the PRC is a state party – rejected the PRC’s maritime claims as having no basis in international law. The Tribunal sided squarely with the Philippines, which brought the arbitration case, on almost all claims.
“As the United States has previously stated, and as specifically provided in the Convention, the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision is final and legally binding on both parties. Today we are aligning the U.S. position on the PRC’s maritime claims in the SCS with the Tribunal’s decision. Specifically:
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“The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim – including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands – vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf. Beijing’s harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. In line with the Tribunal’s legally binding decision, the PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to Mischief Reef or Second Thomas Shoal, both of which fall fully under the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features.
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“As Beijing has failed to put forth a lawful, coherent maritime claim in the South China Sea, the United States rejects any PRC claim to waters beyond a 12-nautical mile territorial sea derived from islands it claims in the Spratly Islands (without prejudice to other states’ sovereignty claims over such islands). As such, the United States rejects any PRC maritime claim in the waters surrounding Vanguard Bank (off Vietnam), Luconia Shoals (off Malaysia), waters in Brunei’s EEZ, and Natuna Besar (off Indonesia). Any PRC action to harass other states’ fishing or hydrocarbon development in these waters – or to carry out such activities unilaterally – is unlawful.
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“The PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to (or derived from) James Shoal, an entirely submerged feature only 50 nautical miles from Malaysia and some 1,000 nautical miles from China’s coast. James Shoal is often cited in PRC propaganda as the “southernmost territory of China.” International law is clear: An underwater feature like James Shoal cannot be claimed by any state and is incapable of generating maritime zones. James Shoal (roughly 20 meters below the surface) is not and never was PRC territory, nor can Beijing assert any lawful maritime rights from it.
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law. We stand with the international community in defense of freedom of the seas and respect for sovereignty and reject any push to impose “might makes right” in the South China Sea or the wider region.”
In recent years, communist Chinese warships are acting increasingly aggressive, locking targeting radars on the warships of other nations, ramming commercial vessels, and obstructing the unrestricted transit of international waters it claims as Chinese territory. The United States holds the right to “fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows—regardless of the location of excessive maritime claims and regardless of current events.” Using combat forces under the command of the U.S. Indo–Pacific Command, the United States asserts the freedom of operations in the international waters of the South China Sea to deter communist Chinese military intimidation.
Communist China’s actions clearly show that there will be no real “rule of international law” in this new cold war. The failure of UNCLOS shows that arbitration with communist China will not work. Thus, where communist China uses force of arms to assert national claims, superior force of arms by the United States and its allies will be needed to deter or repulse such claims.
American military planners must now act on the presumption that the unwillingness of communist China to abide by international agreements it ratified will hold true in space as well. Hence, just as U.S. terrestrial manned combat superiority is required to hold communist China at bay in the South China Sea, U.S. combat superiority will be required in space. To be clear, this is not just about arming or defending satellites, but about manned space combat capabilities—America’s future “Star Fleet”.
China seeks supremacy in outer space
In 2000, as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress created the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission. Each year, this commission publishes a summary report to Congress on communist Chinese intentions and accomplishments. The most recent report—593 pages long—was released in November 2019. Section 3 of Chapter 4 of the report—page 371 of the PDF—is titled, “China’s Ambitions in Space: Contesting the Final Frontier”. The section begins with these key findings of Chinese intentions in space (with emphasis added):
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“China’s goal to establish a leading position in the economic and military use of outer space, or what Beijing calls its “space dream,” is a core component of its aim to realize the “great rejuvenation” of the Chinese nation. In pursuit of this goal, China has dedicated high-level attention and ample funding to catch up to and eventually surpass other spacefaring countries in terms of space-related industry, technology, diplomacy, and military power. If plans hold to launch its first long-term space station module in 2020, it will have matched the United States’ nearly 40-year progression from first human spaceflight to first space station module in less than 20 years.
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“China views space as critical to its future security and economic interests due to its vast strategic and economic potential. Moreover, Beijing has specific plans not merely to explore space, but to industrially dominate the space within the moon’s orbit of Earth. China has invested significant resources in exploring the national security and economic value of this area, including its potential for space-based manufacturing, resource extraction, and power generation, although experts differ on the feasibility of some of these activities.”
Communist China’s intentions in space and the consequences of these actions on the Earth are now clear. Their “rejuvenation” path to world domination extends to include communist China’s domination of the Earth-Moon system. Not only would this provide communist China with global military domination, but it would put a Chinese chokehold on the world’s use of the space resources needed to peacefully elevate the world’s prosperity while transitioning from fossil carbon fuels.
The coming importance of space natural resources
As discussed in my eBook, Astroelectricity, our growing human civilization will need the natural resources of space to adopt true sustainable development and continue the energy-enabled increase of the world’s economic prosperity. Of most importance will be the need to replace fossil carbon fuels with space-based solar-electricity—astroelectricity—transmitted from large solar farms positioned in geostationary Earth orbit to ground receiving stations.
To avoid oil warfare, the United States and the world need an engineering plan to transition in an orderly manner to green energy. From Astroelectricity, Americans will need about 10 kilowatts (kW) of continuous “green” electrical power to meet all energy needs. This is the power needed by ten 1000-watt countertop microwave ovens running continuously for the entire year. By 2100, with an expected population of 500 million, the United States will need roughly 5,000,000,000 kW or 5,000 gigawatts (GW) of continuous green electrical power generation capacity.
Europe’s per capita energy use is about one-half that of the United States. European per capita energy use, which provides a prosperous middle-class standard of living, will be used to set a target for the world’s per capita energy use. Hence, we will use 5-kW of continuous green electrical power as the desired world per capita goal for 2100. To meet the energy needs of 10 billion in 2100, the world will need the equivalent of a continuous sustainable electrical power generation capacity of roughly 50,000,000,000 kW or 50,000 gigawatts (GW).
10 billion × 5 kW = 50 billion kW = 50,000 GW
The Hoover Dam has a maximum power output of 2 GW. This means that the green generating capacity equivalent to 25,000 Hoover Dams must be built to achieve worldwide prosperity through sustainable development. To achieve this by 2100—the general goal of the Paris Climate Agreement for ending worldwide use of fossil carbon fuels by the end of this century—an immense green energy generation, production, and distribution infrastructure must be built worldwide. There is no practical terrestrial nuclear or renewable energy means of providing this level of continuous green electrical power. Roughly 60 million square kilometers of wind farms or nearly 7 million square kilometers of ground solar farms would be needed. For most of the world, including America, the political “Green New Deal” using terrestrial renewable energy is a false hope for providing an orderly transition to sustainable energy.
The only way to achieve this goal is a general system design that maximizes simple, highly robotic manufacturing and construction operations while minimizing specific terrestrial locational needs, such as cooling water or favorable wind conditions. Astroelectricity will do exactly this. Each ground astroelectric plant, receiving transmitted power from space, will provide 5 GW of baseload sustainable electrical power—equal to 2.5 Hoover Dams. Each astroelectric plant will meet the needs of about 1 million people. (In America, at today’s per capita energy use, each astroelectric plant will supply about 500,000 Americans.)
Each astroelectric plant will need about 163 square kilometers (63 square miles) of relatively flat land. Upwards of 10,000 such plants will need to be built requiring 1.6 million square kilometers (630,000 square miles). While this sounds extremely large, it is significantly less than the 60 million square kilometers needed worldwide by 2100 for an all-wind renewable energy solution or the nearly 7 million square kilometers needed for an all-ground solar energy solution—the primary “Green New Deal” presumed solutions. It is also important to understand that the astroelectric plant locations are not dependent on the site’s available wind or sunshine. Thus, astroelectric plants can be built in many locations unsuitable for terrestrial renewable energy.
Just as upwards of 10,000 astroelectric plants will be needed on the ground, an equal number of astroelectric platforms, each the size of Manhattan Island, will be needed in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). The estimated mass of each is in the ballpark of 50,000 tonnes. Once serial production begins, these GEO platforms will be manufactured using mostly lunar and asteroidal raw materials. Upwards of 500 million tonnes of manufactured components will be needed by 2100 to build the world’s needed astroelectric power infrastructure. Undertaking this will require the permanent settlement of the Earth-Moon system accompanied by a spacefaring industrial revolution throughout the central solar system.
If just 100 people are required to maintain and repair each of the 10,000 GEO platforms, this will require one million workers living in space by 2100, with multiples of this for families, miners, production workers, etc. For the world to enter the 22nd century with peace, freedom, and prosperity, the substantial expansion of humanity into space is required.
Communist China intends to extend its Belt and Road initiative to dominate astroelectricity
As quoted earlier from the 2019 report of the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission:
“China views space as critical to its future security and economic interests due to its vast strategic and economic potential. Moreover, Beijing has specific plans not merely to explore space, but to industrially dominate the space within the moon’s orbit of Earth. China has invested significant resources in exploring the national security and economic value of this area, including its potential for space-based manufacturing, resource extraction, and power generation, although experts differ on the feasibility of some of these activities.“
With an understanding of the coming importance of astroelectricity to the world, communist China’s focus on building astroelectric infrastructure is simply an extension of its Belt and Road initiative into space. Communist China’s actions in the South China Sea to build artificial sand islands, declaring these to be its sovereign territory, and using these to assert territorial claims of the entire South China Sea, contrary to the UNCLOS treaty that it ratified, helps in understanding this serious emerging Chinese threat in space.
We must assume communist China will attempt to do something similar in space—perhaps on the Moon; in geostationary Earth orbit; and, especially in the Earth-Moon Lagrangian orbits. They may establish zones of habitation in space, such as they did with the sand islands; populate these exclusively with communist Chinese citizens; declare these to be communist Chinese territories in disregard of any existing treaties (e.g., the Outer Space Treaty); and, then, attempt to deny “Freedom of Space” transit and use of space resources to other nations.
Imagine this being done in geostationary Earth orbit where upwards of 10,000 “space islands” will be built. They can be expected to do this to deter competition and, probably, to have the CCP control other nations’ power, capable of turning off a nation’s power supply as a means of political and economic domination—the very domination that they strive to achieve through their “great rejuvenation”. The world’s inevitable need for astroelectricity provides a means to achieve this domination in the same manner that communist China is now attempting to control the flow of oil and maritime trade around India and through the South China Sea to Pacific nations.
Imagine if communist China “requests” just a 1 cent per kilowatt-hour fee as a form of non-harassment tribute—similar to what the Barbary pirates of North Africa did two centuries ago. This would yield $4.4 trillion per year in payments to China. If communist China directly controls the GEO platforms, then they can sell electrical power to competing nations at a premium price over what Chinese power companies would pay, further increasing revenues while preferentially benefiting the Chinese economy and foreign trade.
Command of the Earth-Moon System
In the mid-1980s, during President Reagan’s administration, eight members of Congress requested that the Congressional Research Service assess the potential for the expanded military use of space by both the United States and the Soviet Union. They sought a “frame of reference that could help Congress evaluate future, as well as present, military space policies, programs, and budgets.” This would be an analysis that would “prove useful not only to interested parties on Capitol Hill, but also to those in the Pentagon, at the National Security Council, at NASA, in industry, in academia, and among the public at large.” The requesting members included Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth.
After nearly two years of research and writing, Col. John M. Collins (U.S. Army, ret.), a highly respected combat veteran and the Service’s senior specialist in national defense, released the 222-page report, “Military Space Forces: The Next Fifty Years“. The time period covered was through 2039—still nearly 20 years in the future. Most people today are unaware of this important report. While it was commercially published, as were certain other of his reports, it has only been available in hard copy, confined to the dusty shelves of distant libraries rarely visited in today’s scholarly Internet research environment.
The opening paragraphs of Collins’ report are pertinent to this discussion of the threat of communist China seeking to command the Earth-Moon system.
“Who rules circumterrestrial space commands Planet Earth;
Who rules the moon commands circumterrestrial space;
Who rules L-4 and L-5 commands the Earth-Moon System.
– Halford J. Mackinder’s
Heartland Theory Applied to Space“
“Circumterrestrial space, the world’s newest military medium, is unlike land, sea, and air. It encapsulates Earth to an altitude of 50,000 miles or so, but armed forces of major powers probably will reach much farther if civilian pioneers begin to colonize the moon and exploit its resources, then expand activities among distant planets, as predicted.
“Orbital operations to, from, within, and through space started with Sputnik I, a Soviet scientific satellite that flew in 1957. Military roles and missions since then have developed along lines like those air power took early in this century. Intelligence and support operations came first, trailed by transportation. Offensive and defensive space forces are following.
“International treaties and other expressions of peaceful intent eventually may obviate any reason for armed forces in space, even ban those now in place, but the odds are poor. Civilian communities and military establishments on Earth already depend heavily on satellite communications, meteorological information, navigation aids, and other services available only from space. More importantly, deep-seated traits create tremendous temptations for aggressors to take all, unless probable costs of such action exceed anticipated gains.” (Emphasis added.)
In the South China Sea, communist China’s actions show that treaties are a means of deferring security preparations by other nations until China decides to act in contravention to the treaties. This is what Hitler did with a willing British prime minister who returned home in late 1938, the Munich Agreement in hand, declaring “peace for our time”. The elated pacifist British prime minister told citizens worried about increasing German aggression, such as annexing Austria earlier that year, “to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.” Within a year, Germany conquered Poland and was preparing to invade France, plunging Europe into six years of warfare, and bringing Britain to the edge of defeat. Pacifism brings war and likely defeat.
President Theodore Roosevelt in 1900 used a foreign policy of “speak softly and carry a big stick”. He believed in “the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis.” In 1907–08, he sent the Atlantic Fleet battleships on a 14-month voyage around the world covering 43,000 miles with 20 port calls. The fleet on this voyage later became known as the “Great White Fleet”. This is the model that America now needs to follow in addressing communist China’s space threat.
America must have the space military supremacy needed to enable future American presidents to have the resolve necessary to deny communist China command of the Earth–Moon system. Today, America must have the intelligent forethought and take the decisive action needed to plan and equip the needed American “Star Fleet”.
Conclusion and what’s next
Awareness of the extent of the very real communist Chinese threat to American freedom and prosperity is the first step in sufficiently strengthening America’s defenses to, hopefully, deter warfare or, if necessary, win a war thrust upon America by Chinese aggression. It is apparent that the CCP has reached the point where it apparently believes it must expand China into a global empire if they are to retain power. Western influences of prosperity through peace, as evidenced in Hong Kong, may be a key factor in this “go big or die” strategy, beginning with the hostile takeover of Hong Kong where dissidents are threatened with life imprisonment.
Regardless of the intent, communist China’s cold war strategy will test America’s resolve to remain the preeminent global superpower. The communist Chinese-propagated COVID-19 pandemic, with many more deaths than America lost fighting communists in Korea and Vietnam, is another confirmation that China, despite the near-term consequences, is decisively striving to achieve the CCP’s “great rejuvenation”, casting America into the history books.
As part of its great rejuvenation, communist China is advancing its spacefaring capabilities—able to launch Chinese astronauts (taikonauts) to space, preparing to build its first operational space station, developing spacecraft to take taikonauts beyond low Earth orbit, and conducting impressive robotic rover operations on the far side of the Moon. Emboldened by their successes in advancing towards their goal of uncontested regional hegemony in the South China Sea and the takeover of Hong Kong, a similar strategy to confront the United States in space to achieve command of the Earth-Moon System—politically, economically, industrially, and militarily—is most likely already underway.
Clearly, the growing communist Chinese ambitions in space will only be deflated by broad American spacefaring preeminence throughout the Earth-Moon System. The U.S. military, specifically the recently re-established U.S. Space Command, will play an important role. What this role needs to be is the focus of a forthcoming blog posting.
Key points
- Marxist-Leninist communism is the archenemy of freedom-loving peoples.
With the collapse of the communist Soviet Union, communist China—ruled by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Chinese Party—has taken its place as the new “evil empire”. - Cold War II is now openly underway where communist China is striving, through its “great rejuvenation”, to achieve global hegemony—ruling the entire world and defeating the United States.
- The communist Chinese-facilitated COVID-19 global pandemic, the territorial expansionist claims in the South China Sea, and the takeover of Hong Kong demonstrate that China is pushing hard to achieve global hegemony.
- Communist China’s “space dream” to command the entire Earth-Moon System is a key part of its push for global hegemony.
Bottom line: The American public must not underestimate the growing communist Chinese space threat or ignore the need for a robust national response to counter this threat. America is now in a new space Cold War where an American “Star Fleet” will be needed.
A refresher on the communist threat
Marxist communism
The tenants of Marxist communism arose from the political radicalism of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the mid-1800s in Europe. In the early 1800s, the world was just beginning to industrialize through the use of steam power. With industrialization needing workers, land-poor peasants moved to the cities of Europe to meet this demand. With much of Europe still being medieval in how they lived—in what today we view as squalor—the living conditions of the workers were poor. It would be another half-century before technology began, through engineering-driven progress, to raise the overall standard of living of what we now call the middle class.
Like many people today, the plight of the poor impacted Marx and Engels. However, they believed that political revolution, rather than an engineering-led technological revolution, was the solution to alleviating the plight of the poor they found intolerable. Understandably, at the very beginning of the technological revolution of the latter-half of the 1800s—e.g., coal, oil, electricity, electric lights, telephones, and automobiles—they failed to recognize how entrepreneurial capitalism would revolutionize the middle-class standard of living with improved real wages and substantially improved living and work conditions. Entrepreneurial capitalism brought true progressive engineering to the masses, supplying work and personal labor-saving devices and transportation powered by steam, electricity, fossil fuels, and internal combustion engines.
Focusing on a political solution, Marx and Engles advocated obtaining control of the economic resources needed to “fix things” by abandoning capitalism in favor of the collective ownership of the means of production. Today, this is called socialism. Implementation of this approach in the early 1900s in Russia showed, after decades of trying, that it was a failure. It was, however, a means to achieve political power and rule.
Soviet communism
The Marxist communist movement began publicly in the 1890s, with 1 May being used as a day for protests to support worker solidarity. A 1905 communist-led uprising in Russia was suppressed, as were similar efforts in other European countries. During this time, Vladimir Lenin became a prominent world communist leader, traveling and speaking extensively throughout Europe to promote a communist uprising.
At a divided 1903 communist convention in London, Lenin’s followers numbered in the majority. They became known as “Bolsheviks” which is Russian for “majoritarians”. Henceforth, Bolsheviks was the name used by communists in Russia. Lenin’s version of communism—now called Marxist–Leninist communism—consolidated the political power obtained through a worker-led revolution into a central government led by a small group of political leaders.
In early 1917, during the First World War, a popular uprising overthrew the Russian monarchy, establishing a Russian Republic. Just months later in October 1917, supported by his Bolshevik communists, Lenin overthrew the new popular government to impose a Marxist–Leninist communist government with Lenin as its leader. Lenin then began a six-year civil war to seize control of much of the territories that formed the former Russian empire.
While Lenin relaxed the fundamental tenants of Marxist communism to encourage foreign capitalistic investment, conduct trade, and permit small privately-owned companies to continue in order to retain political power, he ruthlessly used his secret police and Red Army to put down any popular resistance. He then moved to use this new military might to establish communist-led governments throughout the former Russian empire. Lengthy civil wars persisted for years and thousands were killed resisting Lenin’s expansionist moves. In 1922, after resistance was crushed, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)—called the Soviet Union—was created.
During these formulative years, Lenin was suffering from a debilitating illness. He died in early 1923 just months after the USSR was established. In the ensuing political power struggle, Joseph Stalin became the head of the Soviet Communist Party in 1924 and ruled the government for decades through cronyism, intimidation, and murder. Millions died during his reign. Notably in 1932–33, an estimated four million people in the Ukraine died of deliberate starvation intended to end Ukrainian resistance to the collectivization of the farms.
Following World War II, during which Stalin’s Soviet Union was militarily allied with the United States and Britain against the Nazi Germany-led Axis Powers, the Soviet empire was created through the political annexation of much of eastern Europe, enforced by the occupying Russian Red Army. These client countries were politically organized as the Warsaw Pack. The United States and other member nations of the newly created North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) opposed this Soviet Empire and, especially, the Soviet/Warsaw Pack military threats to expand its empire to encompass all of Europe through invasion. From 1947 through 1991, a “Cold War” existed between the Soviets/Warsaw Pack and the United States and its allies. American political resolve, spanning nearly a half century, won this Cold War. In 1991, as a final expression of political defeat, the USSR was disbanded, with Russia becoming the Russian Federation—remaining a repressive government with a considerable nuclear arsenal.
Nikita Khrushchev held the position of the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. A cunning politician, he rose to lead the Soviet Union for nearly a decade after Joseph Stalin died in 1953. In the fall of 1956, just days after the Soviet military violently crushed an attempt by the Soviet client country of Hungary to escape communism, Khrushchev attended a diplomatic reception in Moscow. He boldly predicted that the tides of history would sweep America aside, elevating the Soviet-led communist movement to rule the world. His words were translated by his interpreter as “We will bury you”, referring to the western nations, led by the United States.
Khrushchev was not referring to destruction through attack but burying America and its allies in a historical sense by communism outlasting capitalism in the global order. In 1961, Khrushchev defined what some in the west labeled a “peaceful coexistence” with the Soviet Union as an “intense economic, political, and ideological struggle between the proletariat and the aggressive forces of imperialism in the world arena.” Two years later, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the United States and the Soviets to the brink of nuclear war. Thirty years later, the tides of history swept aside what President Reagan called the evil Soviet empire. However, the struggle against communism was not done. The fall of the Soviet Communist Party opened the door for communist China to move to the forefront of the global communist movement.
Chinese communism
For perspective, it is estimated that in 1700 the population of China was around 210 million—roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population today. At that time, the last imperial dynasty—the Qing Empire—ruled China. This lasted until 1911 at which time China was a political and economic mess. Foreign interests, such as the British at Hong Kong and the Portuguese at Macau, exerted significant influence. As modernity slowly spread into China, so did new political movements focused on revolution.
In 1911, a revolution overthrew the last remnants of the Qing dynasty, establishing the Republic of China. This began a period of political instability that lasted until 1949. The army that overthrew the dynasty fragmented into warlords competing for power. The Kuomintang, what we refer to as the Nationalist Chinese Party, and the Communist Chinese Party (CCP) were founded during this time.
In 1921, the Kuomintang formed a provisional government, established an army under General Chiang Kai-shek, and initiated warfare to obtain control of the country from the warlords. In 1923, just a year after the Soviet Union was formed, the Kuomintang sought financial and military assistance from the Soviets. A provision for the aid was to bring the CCP communists into the Kuomintang. These communist members, while outwardly professing support, created a leftist faction that quietly worked to subvert the Kuomintang towards communism.
In 1927, a provisional Kuomintang government was created, generally controlled by the communists within the party. The faction of the Kuomintang led by General Chiang opposed the communist faction and its provisional government. In April, the weak political unity of the Kuomintang collapsed. Chiang’s demands to purge communists was ignored. He declared martial law which caused the CCP to formally reemerge in partnership with the provisional government. In response, Chiang initiated a violent purge of the communists resulting in open conflict and many communist deaths. After being denounced as a traitor by the provisional government, his Nationalist Chinese Party established a rival provisional government that would become the second Republic of China. In 1928, his army would solidify control of the country. However, this did not end the civil war.
With a weaker military position, the leftist, communist-leaning government located in Wuhan disintegrated. Three years of further conflict resulted in an estimated 300,000 deaths between the warring factions. It was during this warfare that Mao Zedong entered the fray. Chiang’s army consistently bested the CCP’s fledgling Red Army, forcing their retreat across much of China in 1934–35. This became known as the 5600-mile “Long March” during which Mao ascended to a leadership position within the CCP.
In 1937, the Japanese Empire invaded China. The two warring Chinese armies formed an alliance to fight the Japanese. When Japan surrendered to the United States in 1945, the civil war soon resumed. Mao had become the CCP chairman in 1943. By 1949, the CCP’s Red Army forced Chiang’s army and the Republic of China government to flee to Taiwan. Approximately two million mainland Chinese went to Taiwan where the native population was around six million. On the mainland, Mao’s CCP established the People’s Republic of China.
Korea had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since 1905 after Japan defeated Czarist Russian forces in 1903. After World War II, separate countries of North Korea and South Korea were formed with North Korea under the control of a communist dictator. After World War II, North Korea provided important support to the CCP during its civil war with the Nationalist Chinese, helping the Red Army to gain the upper hand that led to the creation of the communist Chinese state.
While the CCP was battling to take control of China, North Korea was supporting a communist insurgency in South Korea. After this insurgency was largely defeated, North Korea, with the backing of Stalin, invaded South Korea, triggering the Korean War. After bitter early losses, reinforced American and allied military forces pushed deep into North Korea almost to the Chinese border. To save North Korea, communist Chinese forces entered the war, pushing American and allied forces back south, eventually leading to a stalemate and armistice in 1953.
During this time little was publicly known of what was happening in communist China. CCP Chairman Mao spent much of the next two decades pacifying the country through purges and “reeducation”. Tens of millions died during this consolidation.
As a matter of interest, the island of Taiwan and its inhabitants became a part of the Qing dynasty in 1683 by military conquest. Two centuries later in 1884–85, the French fought the Qing dynasty to try to seize control of the island as the French expanded their colonial empire in Indochina. Following the Japanese Empire defeat of the Qing dynasty in their 1894–95 war, Taiwan was part of the territory ceded to Japan. Japan formally renounced its claim in 1952. Since then both Chinas claim the island.
Communist China’s emergence on the world stage
Communist China remained a close ally of the Soviet Union during the early years of Cold War I. This began over 20 years of hostility between communist China and the United States, most prominently during the Korean War and the early years of the Vietnam War. No formal diplomatic arrangements existed because the United States recognized the Republic of China (Taiwan) as the legitimate government of China until 1979. Since 1949, America had known little about mainland China other than that it supported other communist countries fighting the United States in Korea and Vietnam. The only time that communist China and the United States had directly fought was during the Korean War. Large numbers of Chinese forces crossed into North Korea to rescue it from total defeat, nearly defeating the U.S. military before reinforcements could arrive.
Richard Nixon, the vice president under Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president in 1968. Since the early 1960s, American military forces had been involved in the Vietnam War aiding South Vietnam’s government in its fight against communist insurgents from North Vietnam. North Vietnam was supported by the Soviets and communist China. In 1968, over 500,000 American military personnel were in Vietnam. Almost 60,000 Americans died during this war—an average of more than 100 each week of the 10-year war. Much of this conflict was televised nightly on the evening news.
Despite campaigning against the war in his presidential campaign in 1968, in 1972 it was still raging with Nixon substantially to blame. Backed by the Soviet Union and communist China, North Vietnam could not be invaded to end hostilities. Nixon realized early that he needed to cut China’s support for North Vietnam if a negotiated peace—a face saving measure for the United States—was to be achieved. After several years of planning and secret diplomatic ventures, Nixon was ready to go to communist China to begin to establish diplomatic relations.
President Nixon’s 1972 visit began a contentious relationship. Through Nixon, as it had done with past enemies such as Britain, Germany and Japan, America offered its hand in friendship. This was done despite the fact that in neither the Korean War nor Vietnam War, both fought against allies of communist China, the United States did not initiate hostilities. The “friendship” prize for communist China was western investment in China that became the basis for its rapid economic growth over the last 50 years. This is where the communist government followed Lenin’s example in seeking foreign investment and technology insertion to prop up their failing regime. Nixon’s visit also provided a measure of legitimacy to the communist government, especially after President Carter diplomatically recognized communist China as the government of China in 1979.
American manufacturing—the economic heart of America’s middle class—that began to surge in the late 1930s as America rearmed and continued strengthening through the 1950s as the world rebuilt after World War II, began to decline in the 1960s. Ships transporting war materiel to Vietnam, instead of sailing back empty, began to return to the United States with cheap products produced in Asia to further increase shipping line profits. Following Nixon’s visit, a steadily growing number of American companies relocated or expanded manufacturing into Asia, especially in communist China, seeking lower costs and higher profits. Containerized shipping began during this time, further reducing transportation costs and increasing offshoring incentives.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the full extent of this loss of domestic manufacturing security with Americans finding out that we were nearly fully dependent on communist China for medical personal protective equipment and many critical pharmaceuticals. We are also now much more aware of the danger of communist Chinese penetration into many important aspects of American life such as telecommunications and research. Hundreds of thousands of communist China’s students attend college in the United States each year. The communist Chinese Ministry of Education has partnered with many American universities to open “Confucius Institutes” to propagandize communist Chinese culture. Chinese companies are now more than 20 percent of the top 500 global companies. Communist Chinese ownership and investment overseas continue to grow in developed, as well as developing, nations. In just one industrial area of Germany, there are more than 3,000 Chinese companies. Over the last 50 years, communist China has prepared well to compete vigorously—what it calls its “great rejuvenation”—in the now open Cold War with the United States.
After Nixon’s opening of communist China and, especially, Carter’s formal recognition, American foreign policy “experts” expected these actions would liberalize the CCP as foreign investment raised China’s standard of living and introduced western capitalism. Especially with the takeover of Hong Kong, we now know that political westernization in communist China did not develop as these experts expected. Instead of an ally emerging, such as Japan, a dangerous evil competitor emerged with western investment and technologies fueling its reach for global domination.
Communist China targets America with the COVID-19 virus
At the outset of 2020, the United States economy was booming. By traditional presidential campaign metrics, a president seeking re-election with a strong economy has a strong advantage going into the election. Communist China seeks to weaken the United States, its economy, and the confidence and resolve of Americans. With America its obstacle to achieving global hegemony, the American economy is a “center of gravity” for communist China to attack in this new Cold War. Yet, in terms of trade, President Trump had them cornered through tariffs and tough trade negotiations. A different strategy was needed. It came in the form of exploiting the human-contagious COVID-19 virus.
Sometime in the final months of 2019, a new, highly contagious, animal-hosted virus emerged into the mainland Chinese population. This has happened previously. The current belief is that this happened in the large Chinese city of Wuhan, coincidently the location of a Level 4 biological research lab focusing on animal-originated coronaviruses—a lab previously noted by the U.S. State Department to have poor safety protocols.
The World Health Organization (WHO), as of 29 June 2020, revised their virus emergence timeline to state that they learned of a new “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan from Chinese Internet news reports on 31 December 2019. Previously, they had reported that they had been notified by communist Chinese authorities. In late 2019, human to human spread of the virus was already known within the Wuhan medical community. Despite this, the WHO—which has strong political ties to the CCP—issued a Tweet on 14 January stating there was “no evidence of human to human transmission.” On 23 January, a week after the Chinese Vice Premier met with President Trump to sign the new trade agreement, the entire city of Wuhan was quarantined from outside travel within China. The CCP did not, however, stop international travel from Wuhan.
Clearly, the CCP understood the virus transmission threat. Yet, on 3 February, a week after meeting with Xi Jinping, the CCP General Secretary—by which time cases had been found in the United States and the internal Wuhan quarantine had been in place—the WHO Director-General stated “the spread to other countries is minimal and slow” and will be “contained easily”. However, two days later on 30 January the WHO declared a public health emergency. President Trump announced a pending travel ban on 31 January.
While the United States and around 36 countries began to ban or restrict travel to and from communist China around 1 February, nearly a month later on 29 February, the WHO stated, “Travel bans to infected areas or denial of entry to passengers coming from infected areas are usually not effective in preventing the importation of cases but may have a significant economic and social impact.” Despite the Wuhan lockdown being made prior to the WHO director-general’s meeting with Xi Jinping, this statement supported the CCP’s argument against communist Chinese international travel bans that was still being publicly made into March. After 23 January, the CCP’s continued permission of international travel from communist China intentionally “weaponized” the COVID-19 virus to attack the economies of western nations, most prominently being the United States.
As this blog post was being written, the predatory actions of the CCP are responsible for the deaths of more than 150,000 Americans from the COVID-19 virus—often following weeks of intensive medical care. These deaths are but the latest in communist China’s silent attacks on America and Americans. These include the rampant supply of illicit drugs largely originating in communist China that kill tens of thousands each year, the widespread theft of intellectual property (IP) and personal data, disruptive hacking, influence peddling with American politicians, secretive business deals benefiting globalists, and political interference and encouraging American divisiveness through disinformation attacks. On 11 June 2020, the social media company Twitter shut down 170,000 accounts tied to the communist Chinese government for spreading misinformation related to COVID-19 and Hong Kong.
With the COVID-19 virus attack, the naked ambition of communist China to weaken America and harm Americans has been thrust into the consciousness of Americans. This is reminiscent of the awakening that occurred as the carefully crafted illusion of a “peaceful” post-war Soviet Union was unmasked by its crushing re-enslaving of Hungary in 1956 after a brief respite from communist totalitarianism.
Key points
- Marxist-Leninist communism is the archenemy of freedom-loving peoples.
- With the collapse of the communist Soviet Union, communist China—ruled by the Marxist-Leninist Communist Chinese Party—has taken its place as the new “evil empire”.
- Cold War II is now openly underway where communist China is striving, through its “great rejuvenation”, to achieve global hegemony—ruling the entire world and defeating the United States.
- The communist Chinese-facilitated COVID-19 global pandemic, the territorial expansionist claims in the South China Sea, and the takeover of Hong Kong demonstrate that China is pushing hard to achieve global hegemony.
- Communist China’s “space dream” to command the entire Earth-Moon System is a key part of its push for global hegemony.
Bottom line: The American public cannot afford to underestimate the coming communist Chinese space threat or ignore the need for a robust national response to counter this threat. America is now in a new space Cold War where an American “Star Fleet” will be needed.
About the author
Mike Snead is a Professional Engineer and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). He is the founder and president of the Spacefaring Institute™ (spacefaringinstitute.net) and writes the Spacefaring America blog (spacefaringamerica.com). His technical papers are available at mikesnead.com. Mike Snead has authored the eBook Astroelectricity: Why American engineers should advocate for GEO space solar power to end America’s CO2 emissions, make America energy secure, and prepare America for the 22nd century. (ISBN 9781732991408). Videos on the topic of astroelectricity and energy are available on the Spacefaring Institute’s YouTube channel. Follow the Spacefaring Institute on LinkedIn and Facebook.