China Wants to Build Moonbase as Part of Five-Year Plan to Become 'Space Power'

China has outlined big space ambitions for the coming five years, looking into a "near-Earth object defense system" and setting up an international research station on the moon. The plans were outlined in a government white paper released late last month by China's State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China. Its authors noted that over the next five years China will "start a new journey towards a space power" [sic] so that it can "pioneer human progress" and "defend national security".

Some view China as a leading competitor to the U.S. in space. Last year, NASAadministrator Bill Nelson referred to the country as "a very aggressive competitor"—though he also told Newsweek that he wished China "were a partner with us" in space exploration like Russia has been.

China's space industry has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years, conducting 207 launch missions from 2016 to December 2021, the recent white paper claimed. In 2021, the country set a personal record of 40 launches in a year, with two months to spare, according to SpaceNews, and it's planning to beat that this year.

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