China-Led Lunar Research Organization Enables It to Obstruct US Operations on the Moon: Expert

A Long March-4C rocket lifts off from the southwestern Xichang launch center carrying the Queqiao ("Magpie Bridge") satellite in Xichang, China's southwestern Sichuan province on May 21, 2018. This communications relay satellite allows a rover to send images from the far side of the Moon on an unprecedented mission later in 2018. China OUT/AFP via Getty Images

The China-led International Lunar Research Station organization (ILRS) enables the country to obstruct the United States and its allies’ operation on the moon, according to Rick Fisher, senior fellow with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Fisher referred to an April 25 report by China’s state-owned media Global Times on China’s announcement of the building plan for the ILRS with its international partners.

The notice was made by Wu Weiren, chief designer of China’s Lunar Exploration Program and director of the China Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) in Hefei the same day.

Wu told Chinese state television: “We hope [ILRSCO] can become a major scientific program that links multiple countries, international organizations, institutions, and scientists together. China is committed to making greater contributions to humanity; this is our main starting point.”

Wu also stated that since launching the initial ILRS road map 2021, China National Space Administration has inked cooperation agreements or letters of intent with a number of countries and international agencies, including Russia, Argentina, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil.

According to Fisher, the newly set up alliance is going to rival the Artemis Accords, an effort initiated under the Trump administration seeking to establish a common framework to guide responsible space exploration. Up to now, at least 21 countries have been part of the treaty.

He noted that the United States and China are competing for strategic positions and secure access to resources.

“We are already on a trajectory towards some conflict with China on the moon. We’re both targeting the same lunar landing spots on the South pole of the moon because we both ... have concluded that this area has the highest potential for having minable water ice. If you can find water ice on the moon, then you can do things like process oxygen, or even rocket fuels,” Fisher told “China in Focus” on NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.

“If China already has a large presence at that particular landing site, then it will mobilize its coalition, its alliance of countries to criticize the United States, if necessary, lead campaigns against the United States and the United Nations, if necessary, and to try to prevent United States from building a larger settlement in that area proximity,” he added.

Theater for Military Competition

In that scenario, Fisher said that America can apply the same countermeasure, by asking “the Artemis partners to similarly criticize or condemn Chinese actions that are threatening to the United States and the Democratic coalition to their settlements on the moon.”

However, he deemed the act unnecessary, saying the two powers should be able to simply agree not to interfere in each other’s settlements, and to prearrange where they’re going to land.

“Unfortunately, conflict on earth over Taiwan, over the South China Sea, over China’s basic ambitions for global hegemony make it impossible for both countries to carve out outer space as an area of cooperation, because increasingly it is also becoming a theater for military competition,” he said.

Fisher stressed the importance of the United States in maintaining its announced schedule for going to the moon.

“NASA hopes to begin to put Americans and partners on the moon beginning in 2025, we truly have to keep to that schedule,” he said.

“So it’s important for the United States to decide early, even if China starts wars on Earth, that the United States must maintain a sufficient level of funding to ensure that China’s quest for hegemony on earth does not quickly become hegemony over the Earth-Moon system,” Fisher said.

Cyber Attack on Guam ‘Grave’

He pointed to the recent report by Microsoft and the Five Eyes alliance that stated a Chinese cyber espionage group has been targeting a wide range of networks across U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, from telecommunications to transportation hubs, since at least mid-2021.

Microsoft announced on May 24 that the “stealthy and targeted malicious activity” is being carried out by Volt Typhoon, a state-sponsored actor based in China that usually spies and gathers information on targets.

Affected U.S. critical sectors include “the communications, manufacturing, utility, transportation, construction, maritime, government, information technology, and education sectors.”

This includes various networks in Guam in the western Pacific where the United States has a major military presence, Microsoft noted.

Fisher called the attack “very serious” as he believes Guam is probably the most important American military outpost in the Pacific after our facilities in Japan, and would be in use immediately in the event of a Chinese attack against Taiwan, Japan, or a North Korean war against South Korea.

In his opinion, the attacks against Guam have probably been going on for a long time although, he said, this most recent one has been reported because it involves the commercial software of the mega software company, Microsoft.

“All of this is very grave. Cyber attacks would be coordinated with kinetic attacks, special operations attacks, and any Chinese initiation of hostilities against Taiwan would immediately involve hostilities against Guam and American facilities in Japan,” Fisher said.

Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report.