The report China’s Space Narrative, a collaboration between the China Aerospace Studies Institute and CNA’s China and Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Division, disclosed on March 13 that by November 2020, China was home to over 160 commercial space companies, over half of which were founded in the last seven years.FutureAerospace, a state-funded Chinese industry think tank, reported that investment in Chinese commercial space firms totalled 3.57 billion RMB (US$550 million) in 2018, and will exceed 30.6 billion RMB (US$4.7 billion) by 2025. An official of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) claimed that in the next five to ten years, the Chinese market will demand the launch of 4000 commercial satellites — China currently has just over 400 satellites in orbit. The Chinese company iSpace promised the first launch of its Hyperbola 2 by the end of 2021, a reusable first-stage rocket whose envisioned vertical landing capability bears a striking resemblance to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. China’s commercial space companies are directly state-owned, such as Expace and China Rocket. Other nominally private companies have received substantial investment from provincial and local governments.
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