Creation: Political Economy Group of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, at 2025-02-28 Beijing time, the China Manned Space Engineering Office and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan, officially signed the “Cooperation Agreement on the Selection, Training of Pakistani Astronauts, and Participation in Chinese Space Station Missions.” According to the plan, both parties will complete the selection process within about a year, and Pakistani astronauts will receive comprehensive systematic training in China. Based on the flight mission plan of the Chinese space station, in the coming years, Pakistani astronauts will be selected to perform short-term missions aboard the Chinese space station alongside Chinese astronauts. The signing of this agreement marks the first time the Chinese government will select and train astronauts for foreigners, and the Chinese space station will welcome its first foreign astronaut visitor.
This is not the first time Pakistan has sought assistance from Chinese imperialism in the aerospace field. Since the 1980s, Pakistan’s space projects have almost entirely depended on Chinese imperialism, especially in satellite launch projects, where Chinese involvement has been evident:
In 1990, Pakistan’s first domestically produced digital communication satellite Badr-1 was successfully launched aboard China’s Long March 2E rocket.
In 2011, China launched the PakSat-1R communication satellite for Pakistan. This satellite was developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, with China Great Wall Industry Corporation as the general contractor, to enhance Pakistan’s communication capabilities.
In 2018, China successfully launched Pakistan’s PakTES-1A remote sensing satellite, which was independently developed by Pakistan, with China providing launch services.
In May 2024, China’s Chang’e 6 probe, carrying Pakistan’s CubeSat, completed a lunar flyby mission, marking Pakistan’s first lunar exploration mission. On May 30, China successfully launched Pakistan’s multifunctional communication satellite PakSat-MM1, jointly designed and developed by China Great Wall Industry Corporation and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission.Furthermore, as early as 2016, Pakistan officially switched its domestic satellite navigation system from the U.S. GPS to China’s BeiDou system, becoming the first country to fully utilize BeiDou. Judging by China’s material and technological support in Pakistan’s aerospace sector, it seems to justify calling China “Pakistan’s Iron.” Taking the example of the PakSat-1R communication satellite launched in 2011, according to the agreement, the Chinese government provided Pakistan with preferential loans not exceeding 1.35 billion RMB to implement the satellite project. Its satellite users include the Pakistani government, broadcasting and television agencies, telecom operators, broadband service providers, and almost all communication services across Pakistani society. However, imperialism’s nature does not change. The extensive support China provides to Pakistan’s space industry is actually aimed at completely controlling this important colony. Orbit satellites are crucial for information communication. For Pakistan, whose communication technology is underdeveloped, control over communication satellites reflects which country it has sold this lucrative industry to. Pakistan not only sells the profits and secrets of communication services to China but also pays a hefty annual maintenance fee to China Great Wall Industry Corporation, which develops these satellites.
Similarly, the space astronaut training plan signed between China and Pakistan is also a means for China to consolidate its colonial rule. Although China claims to welcome foreign astronauts into its space station under slogans of “peaceful utilization, equality and mutual benefit, and common development,” the primary target is its longstanding colony Pakistan, revealing that this space cooperation project is driven entirely by imperialist rivalry. The “first foreign astronaut to enter the Chinese space station” may seem glamorous, but as a third-world country, Pakistan is incapable of independently cultivating advanced space talents, making it impossible to reach an equal cooperation agreement with a powerful imperialist country like China, let alone “joint development.” The reason China sends Pakistani astronauts to study in China is not to spread advanced space technology but to use the material benefits and pursuit of fame and profit offered by imperialist countries to cultivate comprador intellectuals in colonies, preparing them as spies.
This tactic was once employed by imperialist powers against old China. Today, Chinese imperialism has become the most insidious oppressor of third-world countries, attempting to increase its influence through comprador representatives in various fields. Space technology under imperialist control is essentially used to serve military technologies such as intercontinental missiles; China’s involvement in Pakistan’s space sector is an attempt to influence Pakistan’s military industry through this entry point. The “astronauts” trained in this manner can only serve as tools for revisionist forces, similar to how before China’s capitalist restoration, revisionists served reactionary interests, and after restoration, engaged in activities like “Qigong” to corrupt the masses—like Qian Xuesen—using their academic authority to undermine Pakistan’s democratic independence movement.
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Can you specifically talk about Qian Xuesen’s situation? The Chinese revisionists have always portrayed him as a great scientist who saves the country and the people.
Thinking along these lines, if Pakistan were to erupt in rebellion, the PLA troops could also suppress the Palestinian people just as they suppress their own workers. The PLA is still too cunning.