Good evening. It’s no surprise China is desperate for its own version of Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of satellites in low earth orbit. But how Beijing is going about building its own constellation is a bit unexpected, as our cover story this week explores. Elsewhere, we have infographics on China’s leading robotics firm for warehouses; an interview with Alec Ash on China’s reverse migration trends; a reported piece on the ongoing tensions over Chinese drone maker DJI; and an op-ed about how China’s universities are reorganizing their research to focus on self-reliance. If you’re not already a paid subscriber to The Wire, please sign up here.
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The Clash of Constellations
In 2021, Beijing announced Guowang, its answer to SpaceX’s Starlink. But with very few updates about the project — apart from disciplinary inspections — it seems Guowang could be stalling. China’s space industry, however, is still racing ahead thanks to the surprising flood of private sector companies. Rachel Cheung reports on Beijing’s shift in strategy and what it means for the new space race.
The Big Picture: Geeking Out Over Warehouse Robots
One Chinese company is leading the way when it comes to smart, fast-moving robots. Our Big Picture this week looks at Beijing Geekplus Technology and how its autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are moving goods and sorting inventories at home and abroad.
A Q&A with Alec Ash
Alec Ash is a writer and editor focused on China. Currently, he edits China Books Review, a literary review about China co-published by The Wire China and Asia Society. From 2008 to 2022, he lived in China, and he previously edited the China Channel at the Los Angeles Review of Books. In 2016, he published Wish Lanterns, a book following the lives of six young Chinese people in Beijing. This year, Ash published The Mountains are High, a reported memoir which follows city escapees, including himself, who left places like Beijing or Shanghai and moved to Dali, a town in southwest China. In this week’s Q&A with Katrina Northrop, he talks about the new book, what the trend of reverse migration tells us about today’s China, and the false promise of utopias.
Alec Ash
Illustration by Lauren Crow
Battle for the Skies
Aaron Mc Nicholas reports on the ongoing tensions over DJI, China’s leading manufacturer of drones and a favorite brand among law enforcement agencies across the United States.
Beijing Wants Science to Focus on Self-reliance
Every nook and cranny of China’s innovation system is being retooled to focus on self-reliance, including university-based research, argues Michael Laha, a Berlin-based researcher, in this week’s op-ed.
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