Special to CosmicTribune.com, May 7, 2025

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

Thirty years ago in early 1995, Chinese paramilitary naval forces began a crucial phase in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) objective to impose its control over the South China Sea, clearing the way to secure global hegemony and also, hegemony in space.

In those early months of 1995, Chinese ships occupied Mischief Reef, an eastern outcropping about 200 kilometers West of the Philippine’s island of Palawan, setting off a campaign that saw the construction of seven new island military bases that by 2016 allowed China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to secure control of the South China Sea.

For the CCP/PLA, securing such control of the South China Sea was crucial to defending PLA Navy nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) based in Hainan Island — China’s optimal geostrategic location for basing most of its “second strike” nuclear missiles.

Just as important, Hainan Island would also become the location for the Wencheng Satellite Launch Center, the only space launch base that could support China’s Moon and Mars control ambitions.

Compared to other PLA space launch centers, Wencheng is closer to the Equator, meaning it is rotating slightly faster and thus, eases the launch of much larger space launch vehicles (SLVs) and greater payloads.

Now 30 years after the Mischief Reef occupation, the CCP is pursuing more mischief: it is now reinforcing its control of the South China Sea by pursuing a new space launch center in the Pahang State of Malaysia, about 2,100 kilometers south of Wencheng and only 275 kilometers north of the Equator.

This initiative follows from CCP leader Xi Jinping’s April 15-17 visit to Malaysia, with an April 17 joint statement saying:

“Both sides recognized the significant potential to strengthen partnerships under the Agreement between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Malaysia on Space Cooperation and the Peaceful Use of Outer Space cooperation framework to advance space capabilities, foster the development of the new space economy, drive technological advancements, and contribute to national security.”

According to an April 24 report by T.n. Alagesh of Malaysia’s NST.com web portal, State Investment, Industries, Science, Technology and Innovation Committee chairman Datuk Mohamad Nizar Najib revealed that China Great Wall Industries Corporation (CGWIC) and the Pahang State Development Corporation (PKNP) were pursuing a project to build a new Pahang International Spaceport in Pahang State, Malaysia.

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  More ‘Mischief’ as China plans space launch center In Malaysia