However, given the limited strategic utility of a single launch facility in the Horn of Africa, it seems that China may have ulterior motives for its interest in foreign spaceports.
The burgeoning space industry there offers huge potential for investment, job creation, and economic growth. While challenges may ultimately stall or scupper the arrangement, the potential site in Obock serves an important case study for how China or other actors could expand their geopolitical playbook to circumvent the international space governance regime.Ĭhina regularly exports space-related applications as tools of global influence, and the potential investment in Obock fits into Beijing’s broader efforts to project power on the African continent. Building a spaceport is a difficult endeavor, and building such a facility on foreign soil is even more complicated. If completed, it would mark the first instance of a launch facility funded by China or a private Chinese company in foreign territory. In January, Hong Kong Aerospace Technology Group, a Chinese company, signed an agreement with the government of Djibouti to build a rocket launch facility in Obock, a small port town in the country’s north.
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