A superpower like the United States has resorted to playing the victim. That is almost bewildering. It remains unclear whether this reveals China's rising strength or America's weakening grip. Either way, a sobering sign of the times.
The dust has not yet settled after China's navy conducted an underwater launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the Pacific on July 6. A US State Department official claimed that "China's notification to the United States came only a few hours before the launch and failed to provide sufficient detail, falling considerably short of standards adopted by all other P5 nuclear weapon states." A check of the US Department of Defense's website tells a different story. Washington is only telling half the truth, and such hypocrisy does not look good on the world stage.
The agreement actually being invoked reads as follows: "On May 31, 1988, in Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze signed the Agreement on Notifications of ICBM and SLBM Launches. The Agreement provides for notification, no less than 24 hours in advance, of the planned date, launch area, and area of impact for any launch of an ICBM or SLBM. The Agreement also provides that these notifications be provided through the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers. The Agreement entered into force on the date it was signed."
This is a bilateral pact between the United States and the Soviet Union, now 38 years old. Yet somehow, when it gets dredged up again, it "automatically" morphs into "the standard jointly observed by the UN Security Council's permanent five." How does that work? Perhaps the US and Russia believe they alone are qualified to represent the entire "P5." Perhaps the White House cannot even be bothered with proper wordplay anymore and simply decides it gets to set the rules for the whole world.
China, however, holds even more tricks up its sleeve. Following the usual rule that "one thing leads to another," a show of force from China's space program came hot on the heels of the missile launch. Global Times reported: "China's Long March 10B carrier rocket lifted off from the Hainan commercial space launch site at 12:15 pm on Friday. Approximately six minutes after the separation of the rocket’s first and second stages, the first stage made a vertical return and was successfully recovered by an offshore recovery platform.” It noted that it is the world’s first net-based recovery system.
Elon Musk's SpaceX has carried out multiple successful rocket recoveries in the past. Its mature technology has earned it the title of "the undisputed leader in global commercial spaceflight." This time, though, marks China's first successful rocket recovery using a net-capture system, and the first such feat achieved globally. It has been described as "China’s first successful implementation of controlled recovery of a launch vehicle’s first stage." In simple terms, China has developed its own recovery method, distinct from SpaceX's "vertical powered landing" approach. The advantage lies in lower fuel consumption compared to traditional vertical landings, plus lighter equipment since landing legs are not needed. This could well become a viable alternative path outside the US-dominated model.
China has already flexed its muscles in artificial intelligence. Seedance 2.0, unveiled earlier this year, showcased the dominance of homegrown Chinese technology. Then there is Huawei's "Tao chip," a disruptive force challenging Silicon Valley's grip on Moore's Law. If China now has its own model for reusable space rockets too, how many strongholds of advanced technology does the US have left to claim as its exclusive turf?
Of course, the US has its own playbook for going after China on all these fronts. It can slap China with accusations of copying or stealing technology. Just tack on the word "future" and call it "copying America's (future) technology." Suddenly Washington gains the moral high ground to demand explanations, or better yet, to slap on punitive tariffs whenever Trump feels like it.
Still, it has to be said that a submarine-launched intercontinental strategic missile, chips and AI, and space technology are not merely civilian tools. They are either purely military or dual-use instruments of national power. Together, they show that China's comprehensive national strength has pulled ahead of the US by a generational. What is truly unnerving is that China now stands to gain a real voice across technical standards, the international order, and trade rules alike.
When China rules the world, the US may one day struggle even to stage a convincing "victim" act. This matters. Ye be warned.
Deep Blue
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Zhuque has silenced America. SpaceX's repeated successes in rocket recovery drove home one point: American business works. And China? How could a feat achieved by marshaling the strength of an entire nation possibly compare with a private outfit pulling off a mission impossible?
Cast your mind back. The Clinton boom, built on the information superhighway, delivered four consecutive fiscal years of budget surplus. From 2015 onwards, SpaceX achieved rocket recovery, putting American commercial spaceflight at least a decade ahead of China. What more could anyone say? Behold the splendor of America's overall national power!
At 7:35 this morning, the reusable Zhuque-3 Y2 carrier rocket lifted off smoothly. Its builder is LandSpace, a Chinese commercial space company founded, coincidentally, in that very same year of 2015. The mission report reads: "About 137 seconds after liftoff, the first and second stages separated. The first stage then began its return sequence. After key maneuvers including high-altitude attitude adjustment, deceleration and aerodynamic gliding, it made a successful soft landing at the Gansu landing pad at 7:43. The flight test was a complete success."
A few points are worth adding. First, the Zhuque-3 Y1 made its maiden flight on December 3, 2025. It successfully delivered a satellite into its designated orbit, though its first-stage vertical recovery test failed.
Second, eight months on, Zhuque-3 has delivered on its mission, a task of major significance. Zhuque becomes our country's second reusable rocket after the Long March 10B.
Third, mind you, the Long March rockets belong to the "national team."
Fourth, China's state and commercial space programs are setting sail like "twin dragons out to sea." America is feeling the competitive pressure.
SpaceX has made a blockbuster stock market debut. The world is counting on America, following the internet, to lead the globe once more through space technology. The hope is a replay of the Clinton-era golden age. SpaceX pulled off the first successful recovery of a Falcon 9 rocket, then industrialized the technology. Today it launches the Falcon 9 around 150 times a year, roughly three times a week. A single booster can be reused dozens of times.
Yet even before the successful recovery of the Zhuque-3 Y2, American think tanks were already worried. China, doing things the Chinese way, has achieved recovery in both state-run and commercial spaceflight, with equally precise touchdown points. China's "catch-up" is no longer out of reach.
What deserves attention is this: China's state and commercial sectors are advancing in tandem, while NASA has widely adopted the commercial model. In return-to-the-Moon programs such as Artemis, NASA has contracted out uncrewed lunar landers, precursor satellite launches and even rocket servicing and replenishment support to multiple private space companies. Commercial players such as SpaceX, Firefly Aerospace and Rocket Lab are the mainstays.
Two years ago, analyses weighed the relative strengths of the Chinese and American space programs. Commentators argued that NASA's shift from "designing and building in-house" to "commercial contracting" would push national scientific talent out of front-line positions. Over the long run, that would weaken the state's "deep control and independent assessment capability" over space technology.
And if complex spaceflight life-support systems or new space station designs were left entirely to private leadership, NASA would face the twin hazards of technology and risk. Boeing's Starliner saga, which stranded two American astronauts on the International Space Station for a full nine months, is in its own way the same tune as today's USS Abraham Lincoln incident. Go figure.
The pair finally left the station "smoothly" aboard a SpaceX Dragon on March 18, 2025. They landed safely back on Earth the next day. Trump sang Musk's praises for a job well done.
A quick explainer: history has seen a so-called "Sputnik moment." In truth, it was a "Sputnik" crisis for America. In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik 1, humanity's first artificial satellite. The phrase has since come to describe the turning point when a nation suddenly realizes it is lagging a rival in technology or a critical field. That realization triggers an acute sense of crisis and an urgent drive to catch up.
President Kennedy led America out of the Sputnik crisis with the Apollo lunar landing program. Today, can America build a crewed Mars program to overtake its rival? Musk, this round is all on you. Stop firing off low-orbit satellites like crazy to rake in cash. The day a crewed Mars landing succeeds will be the ultimate MAGA moment. Let's keep at it, together.
