China's branding problem: Image management and the US-China space relationship

Abstract

What image does China attempt to convey about its space program? And how is its program perceived in the United States? This article argues that as a rising power, China seeks to project a benign image to reassure dominant powers such as the United States of its intentions on Earth and in space. However, Chinese attempts at reassuring the United States have been largely unsuccessful. Factors such as China’s autocratic political system, military-dominated space sector, and bureaucratic politics undermine its image management strategies and ability to reassure. More broadly, China’s growing space ambitions are occurring against the backdrop of an increasingly deteriorating bilateral relationship with the United States. Taken together, these dynamics are exacerbating security dilemma dynamics between the two powers, which may have increasingly dire consequences for stability and governance of the space domain.