Last Updated on 04/09/2024 by Arun jain
By now, most people have heard of Starlink. Since it was launched five years ago, the satellite firm is spearheaded by a billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk With more than 3 million subscribers and more than 6,000 deployed satellites, it has become a real telecommunications phenomenon. But it is in the geopolitical arena where Starlink is arguably having its greatest impact, as the company’s ability to provide greater Internet connectivity for captive populations and conflicted nations has the potential to reshape the struggle for freedom around the world.
Ukraine provides a case in point. In the two-and-a-half years since the start of Russia’s war of aggression, Starlink has provided reliable satellite-based connectivity that has played a key role in allowing Kiev. War back Against the Kremlin.
That, moreover, may be only the tip of the iceberg. Starlink has been floated as a A tool to empower Iranian dissidentsAided humanitarian organizations operating in A war zone like GazaAnd it is prescribed as an antidote Increasing authoritarian control of the Internet. But Starlink may soon face some stiff competition—notably, from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
China’s state-backed Qianfan group recently Successfully launched 18 broadband internet satellites. Deployment is part of a much larger plan; By the end of 2025, the company hopes to have 600 such satellites in orbit—and by 2030, that number could rise to 14,000.
Qianfan, moreover, is not alone. It represents just one of three planned Chinese mega constellations that will assemble nearly 40,000 satellites for the PRC in the coming years. Other players in this space include China Satellite Network Group, which aims to deploy 13,000 satellites, and Landspace Corporation, which plans to launch 10,000 of its own.
The results will be more than just professional. experts expressed concern that the proliferation of its satellites would increase China’s ability to conduct surveillance activities on a scale, as well as increase its (already extensive) media censorship capabilities.
But an even more serious threat is how China’s already extensive propaganda activities will be amplified as a result. That’s because global demand for telecommunications is growing in places like Africa, where the continent’s population is 1.3 billion. Currently only 40 percent are wired. If countries there and elsewhere embrace China’s growing telecommunications offerings, it will profoundly shape the information their populations consume—and therefore how they think about the world.
The results can be devastating.
“In the same way that China is able to curate content for a US audience TikTokIt will be able to reach any nation that has subscribers and provide its own, curated view of the world,” my colleague and former Air Force chief futurist Peter Garretson told me recently. “From the perspective of an autocratic state actor, the space internet is an incredibly powerful propaganda weapon. .”
That power lies in the unique properties of space-based communications, Garretson explained, which “can provide information directly to the end user and circumvent attempts by states to control information.” In other words, space-based communications can be used to connect underserved communities, empower embattled opposition forces, and break the growing authoritarian stranglehold on information—tasks that Starlink currently does, or may soon do. However, it can also be used in the opposite way – to monopolize what the vast majority of the world sees, hears and reads, as does the Chinese government. Already the limit Information available to its own captive population.
Naturally, this contest is a zero-sum game. The more nations there are attached to Chinese satellites, the smaller the global audience for Starlink or other Western conglomerates. Conversely, if Starlink succeeds in its current bid, it stands to gain in places like Africa And Latin AmericaIt would naturally create a pluralistic, open global media environment—one in which it would be more difficult for the PRC to propagate, differentiate, and influence.
Only one of those ways benefits American security. It’s up to policymakers in Washington to empower him.
Ilan Berman is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC, where he directs the Council’s Future of Public Diplomacy project.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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