Satellite equipment and parts arrive in crates from Beijing. Chinese scientists scan space-tracking monitors and deliver instructions to Egyptian engineers. A Chinese flag hangs from one wall. The first satellite assembled at the factory, hailed as the first ever made by an African nation, was built mainly in China and launched from a spaceport there in December 2023.
The satellite plant, which began operating in 2023, is part of a suite of space technology that China has gifted to Egypt over the past two years. Transfers that have been disclosed publicly include a new space monitoring center, which features two of the world’s most powerful telescopes, plus two Earth observation satellites launched in 2023 – the one that was assembled in Egypt, and another manufactured solely in China. In addition, China that year launched a third, Chinese-made satellite for Egypt, one capable of military-grade surveillance, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Sisi has fostered closer ties with China in recent years, including inking infrastructure and energy projects under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Egypt, a major recipient of U.S. military aid, is not the only country in Africa being drawn into China’s orbit. Beijing has 23 bilateral space partnerships in Africa, including funding for satellites and ground stations to collect satellite imagery and data, according to the United States Institute of Peace, a think tank. In the past year, Egypt, South Africa and Senegal agreed to collaborate with China on a future moon base, a project that rivals the United States’ own lunar plans.
Privately, China is getting far more in return for its investment. This includes access to surveillance data collected by satellites and telescopes as well as a permanent presence in facilities it builds, according to six people with direct knowledge of China’s space projects in Africa.
The Pentagon says China’s space projects in Africa and other parts of the developing world are a security risk because Beijing can hoover up sensitive data, enhance its military capabilities and coerce governments if they become locked into China’s communications ecosystem.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, did not respond directly to questions about whether China is using equipment in Africa for surveillance. He said the U.S. “is not in a position to smear or defame China” because of America’s own record of spying.
The space infrastructure and equipment that China is installing in Africa have common civilian uses such as transmitting data, monitoring the impact of climate change and helping fly spacecraft. But they also have military applications.
Access to a broad range of Chinese-built, foreign-owned satellites gives Beijing the ability to better coordinate military operations. These satellites could also give China a clearer picture of U.S. military activities around the world. The Earth observation satellite assembled in Egypt, for instance, has the ability to take high-resolution images of areas where the U.S. and Egypt carry out joint military exercises.
U.S. allies have pulled back from terrestrial space partnerships with China. In 2020, Sweden declined to renew a contract with China that had allowed Beijing to use satellite ground stations in Sweden and Australia, citing the “geopolitical situation.”
To understand China’s space push in Africa, Reuters interviewed more than 30 people with knowledge of Chinese projects on the continent, including diplomats, space engineers, consultants, and military and intelligence officials. Reuters also reviewed over 100 patents and papers published by Chinese government and military bodies leading Beijing’s space program.
China’s rapid expansion of its space infrastructure on Earth is an example of a broader trend in which Beijing is catching up with the U.S. on everything from satellites to uncrewed moon landings to anti-satellite weapons, Stephen Whiting, commander of the Pentagon’s U.S. Space Command, told Reuters.
“We see breathtaking advancements by China in space,“ Whiting said, adding that the Pentagon is “paying attention” to Beijing’s partnerships with developing countries.
The U.S. still has by far the biggest space program in the world, which is underpinned by SpaceX and a host of other private space companies.
Still, China’s advances in space pose a challenge to Trump. During his first term, Trump created the U.S. Space Force, a new arm of the military that recognized the importance that space will play in future conflicts.
They predict Trump is more likely to double down on America’s military capacity in space and push ahead with a race to the moon and possibly Mars, bolstered by his friendship with Musk. NASA’s Artemis program, supported by rocket launches by private companies like SpaceX, aims to get astronauts back on the moon by 2028. NASA, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency, also plans to build a space station in the moon’s orbit known as the Lunar Gateway.
Washington’s efforts at space diplomacy have been unable to counter China’s growing bonds in Africa, which are gaining significance as a new global space race takes off, according to interviews with U.S. and African space officials.
The moon has emerged as a test of allegiance. The U.S. has signed up more than 50 countries to the Artemis Accords, a set of rules to influence space exploration and the use of the moon and Mars. China has described the U.S. rule book as a colonial-style land grab, proposing instead to build a collaborative International Lunar Research Station. China has gained the support of a dozen countries for its moon base, including Russia and Egypt.
China’s main space agency, the China National Space Administration (CNSA), did not respond to a request for comment. In response to a question from a Reuters reporter at a media briefing in Beijing in October, Yang Xiaoyu, director of the agency’s System Engineering Department, said China has data-sharing agreements with partner countries but “has never, and will never” use images and data to enhance its military surveillance capabilities.
U.S. MISSTEPS
Space Command’s Whiting said the U.S. programs aren’t comparable to China’s.
Whiting said the U.S. Space Command does not have any space-tracking assets in countries where China is setting up similar capabilities.
Some African governments have grown weary of Washington’s security warnings about China and are more interested in which country is going to provide money and space technology, said Temidayo Oniosun, managing director at Space in Africa, a Nigeria-based consultancy.
Pace, the former top space official under Trump, said the U.S. should have done more to build relationships in Africa and elsewhere. A big part of the problem is that NASA, the State Department and the U.S. development agencies often don’t coordinate their efforts as closely as Chinese arms of government do, he said.
China’s more coordinated approach was demonstrated in the way it embedded itself inside Egypt’s space program from the start, according to interviews with five people involved in the projects.
In 2017, CNSA, the Chinese space agency, announced a partnership with Egypt’s National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences to build a satellite facility in Cairo. The Chinese deal coincided with Cairo’s creating the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA) in January 2018 and laying out plans for the construction of a Space City on the outskirts of Cairo.
When ground broke on the satellite plant, the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, Liao Liqiang, was on site. Liao, a career diplomat and vocal advocate for more Chinese-led space projects in Africa and the Middle East, would go on to closely oversee the development of the lab, according to the two people.
The project was seen as a priority for China’s space agency, and progress on it was fed back to CASC President Zhang Zhongyang, two sources said. CASC develops space tech to support China’s military capabilities, according to a Reuters review of patents. This includes using satellites to coordinate missile strikes.
In July last year, Zhang visited Egypt to inspect the satellite facility, official photos show.
Egypt’s satellite facility does not, however, add up to a full-fledged space program – it relies on China for almost every aspect of the project. Two of the three satellites emanating from the partnership so far were built solely in China, while the third was assembled in Egypt from Chinese components. All three were launched from China.
The second, Horus 2, was launched weeks later from the same spaceport in China, CASC announced, without disclosing the customer. Horus 2 is a military-grade surveillance satellite built for Egypt, two sources with knowledge of the satellite said. EgSA did not respond to questions about the purpose of Horus 2.
Most of the construction of MisrSat-2 was done by CASC in China; parts were shipped to Cairo, assembled and tested by CASC and Egyptian engineers, then shipped back to China for launch, two people with direct knowledge told Reuters. While the $72 million satellite technically belongs to Egypt, CASC still monitors the data and images it collects, the people said.
EgSA did not respond to questions about whether China also has access to the satellite data.
Sedky said Egypt is not picking sides in the space race by partnering with China. Cairo has received more than $80 billion in U.S. military and economic assistance since the late 1970s, according to the State Department website.
A Reuters journalist saw Chinese engineers buzzing in and out of the Space City complex. Asked about their presence, Sedky said they were there to install equipment and train Egyptian staff. He said these Chinese workers would leave eventually.
USPACE did not respond to requests for comment.
China and Egypt are also collaborating on a project to monitor satellites in orbit using sophisticated telescopes. That’s a capability military analysts say is crucial as the number of satellites in space multiplies – along with the development of weapons to cripple them.
Makram Ibrahim, professor of space physics at Egypt’s National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, said the collaboration with China was for scientific research.
Liu, the Chinese embassy spokesman, did not comment on China’s specific motives for investing in Egypt’s space program. He said “supporting Africa’s development is a shared responsibility of the international community.”
He said his nation is neutral and wouldn’t get drawn into the U.S.-China rivalry. But he said the contest could help supercharge technological development, just as East-West competition did in the Cold War.
“It seems that the race has started again,“ Yilma said.
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