The New Asian Space Race: How Regional Cooperation Can Help the U.S. Counter China

By. Alec Hennessy

DOI. 10.57912/31080130

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On October 30th 2025, a spokesman for the Chinese crewed space mission reaffirmed China’s commitment to go to the Moon by 2030, and confirmed that China remained on schedule for this ambitious goal. This new announcement was one of many that have recently come out of Beijing as it surges ahead in space exploration, both manned and unmanned. Since the start of the decade, China has installed a satellite network to challenge the American GPS system, launched astronauts into its first space station, and deployed the first spacecraft to land on and retrieve samples from the far side of the Moon. The explosive growth of the Chinese space industry has worried policymakers in Washington, who have long neglected NASA and are only now left with a handful of private companies that may be up to the task. The saving grace for the U.S. seems to be that the only countries matching China’s sweeping growth are its two largest regional rivals: India and Japan. Increasing cooperation with these two countries may be the best opportunity for the U.S. to counter the Chinese space industry.

For much of the U.S.-Soviet space race, Asia as a whole was largely neglected by Washington and Moscow. The first country to seriously challenge this perception was Japan, which launched its first satellite, Ohsumi, in 1970. Going into the late Cold War and 90s, the Japanese space industry was one of the leading industries globally and followed up its satellite start by refining its rocket launches, strengthening cooperation with the U.S., and consolidating various agencies into the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Arguably, the most significant Japanese accomplishment has been the Hayabusa program, which traveled to an asteroid orbiting the sun and successfully retrieved materials through asteroid mining. Japan has been accelerating its space program rapidly in comparison to the rest of the world, but a country with even more recent growth might be India.

The Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, has also recently achieved incredible feats, all while operating at substantially lower cost than comparable national space programs. In 2023, India received significant international praise for becoming the first nation to land on the Moon’s southern hemisphere with its Chandrayaan-3 landing. The total cost of the program was 75 million dollars, compared to U.S. missions that can easily run into the multiple billions, like NASA’s Perseverance rover. The ISRO has additional future projects planned, such as returning to the Moon under Chandrayaan-4 and uncrewed missions to Venus. India possesses the education and scientific resources necessary to become a major power in space, as well as the ability to perform complex missions on a very constrained budget, even giving it a competitive edge over China.

However, China remains a significant and growing player in the space industry. Future Chinese space plans include the Tianwan 3 and 4 missions, which will retrieve samples from Mars as well as orbit Jupiter’s moon of Calisto. China’s plans also include establishing a research base on Mars by 2033, which would put it well ahead of the U.S. in terms of expertise and accomplishments. Working together with China’s biggest regional rivals here on Earth may be the last saving grace for the U.S. as it navigates a new reality here on Earth and in space.

All of this need for greater U.S. cooperation in space comes at a time when its rivals are also beginning to recognize the necessity of working together. Although the Russian space program has faced multiple “systemic difficulties” and generally stagnated since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it has now partnered with China to provide an alternative to the current U.S. hegemony in space. China has even begun coordinating with other Asian states, such as Iran, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, under the Asia Pacific Space Cooperation Organization. All of these new partnerships have naturally come with some complications regarding coordination; however, the benefits they provide by growing and protecting China’s space programs from international sanctions outweigh the complications. They also ensure that the CCP maintains an international partner network to support space research.

To counter this, the U.S. needs to adopt a policy of increasing cooperation wherever possible with friendly nations in the space sector to counter Chinese growth. Japan is already a powerful U.S. ally, and expanding cooperation between NASA, U.S. private companies like SpaceX, and JAXA should be prioritized; however, the greater challenge is convincing India to join in this space alliance. U.S. policymakers should seek to convince India that China’s Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization aims to ally different nations against India’s space aspirations, and then offer India greater cooperation with the U.S. and its allies. The Quad Space Cooperation Act, which seeks to increase intelligence sharing and deter China from cooperating with any Quad member, is a good start toward greater cooperation among all agencies and nations involved. In the future, the U.S. could even look to nations like South Korea and Taiwan for assistance. Still, given the successful histories of Japan and India’s space agencies, they are must-haves for a successful U.S. counter to China. The Artemis Accords are another step in the right direction toward building space diplomacy; however, what is needed for the U.S. immediately is more direct research and development collaboration rather than agreements on the conduct of nations in space. This underlies the importance of the U.S. allying with Japan and India, which already have matured and developed space programs. 

The new space race may already be upon us, but it will not be like the last time against the Soviet Union. To win this new competition against China, the U.S. should rely not just on its own talents but also on the alliances and diplomacy it can maintain and strengthen. Creating a space program that works alongside other emerging titans like India and Japan will make its own efforts better received by the world and offer much-needed help with technology, budgets, and reliability needed to stay relevant against a growing China.