Welcome to the China NewSpace newsletter!

Welcome to the China NewSpace newsletter!

This is your weekly look into the Chinese private space industry. If you haven’t subscribed yet, please do so here.

I created this newsletter because two of my passions, China and space, have finally come together. The private space industry in China is young and growing rapidly; it was only in 2014 that the State Council began encouraging private investment in space, and in 2019 China’s first private rocket successfully reached orbit (i-Space’s Hyperbola-1).

To better understand these developments, the China NewSpace newsletter will bring you translations of interesting Chinese-language blog posts, articles, etc. (starting next week), as well as a roundup of news in the Chinese private space industry.

A brief note in case you’re wondering who I am: my name is Cory Fitz, I am originally from the US, and I live and work in London where I recently completed an MA studying China’s economic policymaking.

Roundup

If you want to dig into Chinese newspace companies, one of the best places to start is The China Aerospace Blog, written by Jean Deville. I’d like to highlight this two-part article from last September, where he takes on the issue of whether or not new Chinese launcher companies are starting to form a bubble.

Thoughts on the “Hype” about China’s NewSpace Launcher Startups (Part 1)

Thoughts on the “Hype” about China’s NewSpace Launcher Startups (Part 2)

What is particularly clarifying about Deville’s article is how he breaks down supply and demand; he argues that on the supply side the industry looks similar to what we see in the US, but potential challenges exist on the demand side, both from domestic competition from State-Owned Enterprises and from the regulatory risk of being locked out of overseas markets. Both parts are a must-read.

Inspiration for this Newsletter

I have long been a fan of Oxford scholar Jeffrey Ding’s amazing newsletter on AI in China, called ChinAI, where he brings Chinese-language sources on AI in China to an English-speaking audience. His work inspired me to create my own newsletter, and you should check his out here.

If you have any comments, contact me at chinanewspace@gmail.com

You can also find me on Twitter at @cory_fitz