By Yu Shuizhou and Feng Songjiang
The US Department of State (DOS) recently released A Strategic Framework for Space Diplomacy, declaring that the country will promote international cooperation and build a "rules-based international order for outer space". The US politicians remarked that the release of the document is a groundbreaking effort to strengthen US leadership in space. However, it is ironic that the so-called international cooperation alleged by the US actually aims at wooing allies to jointly resist cooperation with strategic competitors in space projects by exploiting diplomatic means. Such kind of international cooperation can only be created by this very country obsessed with hegemony.
Not long before the release of the document, the US-led QUAD summit was held in Tokyo, where the US, Japan, India and Australia announced plans for aerospace cooperation. All these moves have exposed the US ambition and plot to seek space hegemony by establishing a small-multilateral space diplomatic mechanism and building small cliques of space alliance.
The US has always seen itself as a rule-maker in space activities, attempting to dominate space cooperation and ensure that other countries conduct space activities in accordance with its standards and rules. The United States Space Priorities Framework released in 2021 clearly announced to utilize commercial space capabilities to meet their national space security needs. The Tokyo summit proposed to advance commercial space cooperation, enhance the resilience of space supply chains and lead the establishment of accountability standards in the Indo-Pacific region. Soon after the talks concluded, the US Department of Commerce proclaimed that a "milestone progress" has been achieved in negotiations on the Indo-Pacific space supply chain agreement, ensuring that the US benefits from a resilient, reliable, and efficient supply chain.
The US attaches great importance to the full application of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and regards it as the foundation of all space activities, a critical prerequisite for space control and an indispensable combat force. In recent years, the country has signed space situational awareness sharing agreements with relevant departments of many countries and has also drawn Japan, India, Australia and other countries to participate in exercises such as Space Thunder and Black Skies for sharing space intelligence.
In addition, the US also uses various forms to promote its space alliance coterie. In June 2022, the first tactical course for the Five Eyes alliance was held at Vandenberg Space Force Base, aiming to train space military personnel of relevant countries to plan space operations at the tactical level. The US Space Command still intends to expand the scope of training to involve Germany, Japan, ROK and other countries. In addition, the US plans to muster the so-called like-minded countries to endorse the Artemis Accords, in an attempt to forcibly modify traditional multilateral space governance rules through unilateral dominance and to occupy and monopolize space resources by means of bypassing the United Nations and international law.
Undoubtedly, the US' deliberate engagement in small cliques in the space field is out of plots around dominance in space rule-making and space hegemony for selfish interests. What the US has done runs counter to the historical trend of win-win cooperation, does not accord with the interests of most countries in the world, and brings about a serious impact on space security and peaceful use of outer space.
