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.
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.
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.
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.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.