This book is the first of its kind to explore a new frontier – how China promotes the rule of law in space governance – and is also part of the Eleven collection on essential air and space law. Divided into three chapters, Wu introduces and analyzes China's space programmes, policy, and law with comprehensive annexed documents.
Chapter 1 (China's Space Programmes) reviews the history and highlights technical aspects of China's space industry development, with China's major space programmes and space actors serving as two cornerstones for further discussion. A particularly interesting aspect is the public-private stakeholder interest analysis in Section 1.3 and the combination of civil and military forces contributing to the burgeoning trend in China's space development. Chapter 2 (China's Space Policy) reveals the current core instruments of China's space governance, which include development plans, policy papers, and white papers on space activities. From these documents and statements, the author summarizes the basic principles for developing space activities, as well as how China evaluates its cooperation with other space-faring states and institutions. Chapter 3 (China's Space Law) sheds light on the trend towards promoting national space legislation. The author critically explores the emerging and increasing domestic need to improve and share prospects in space legislation. This chapter also provides a three-fold answer to the question: why was no space law advocated for six decades in China? Namely, China started late in developing the rule of law. The initial lack of a need for space legislation is a result of China's model development, notwithstanding bureaucratic setbacks and difficulties with space legislation.
As outer space concerns a new sphere of global governance, China's ambition in space draws more attention than some other countries due to the history of the space race between the United States and Russia and, in the context of techno nationalism, China's policy and lawmaking in this area is well illustrated by Wu. One highlight of the book is its abundant resources, such as policy papers (white papers) on, or applicable to, space activities; regulatory rules on space activities; China's space-related statements and proposals in the United Nations; agreements on international space cooperation; and the judicial cases applying and interpreting the outer space treaties. These sources of law and policy provide methodological tools to understand China's space governance, which, due to the sparseness of space law, relies heavily on policy and not necessarily on law. To write a book on China's space programme, one has to understand profoundly what takes effect in space governance. Wu, who has published extensively in elite journals on space policy and, more recently, on civil-military integration policy, is a well-qualified author. It is expected that this book will be updated in due course, given the promotion of the rule of law in the space sector, particularly with a view to China's growing participation in establishing space law.
Conflicting interest
The author declares none.
