China to boost satellite services, space technology application: white paper

BEIJING -- China will continue to boost public services with satellites and promote the application and transfer of space technology in the next five years, according to a white paper on the country's space program.

The white paper, titled "China's Space Program: A 2021 Perspective," was issued Friday by the State Council Information Office.

China will intensify the integration of satellite application with the development of industries and regions, and space information with new-generation information technology such as big data and Internet of Things, the document said.

The country will extend the integrated application of remote-sensing satellite data on land, ocean and meteorology, advance the construction of infrastructure for integrated application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), satellite communications, and the ground communications network, so as to improve its capacity to tailor and refine professional services, it said.

All these efforts will help achieve the goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality, revitalize rural areas, and realize new-type urbanization, coordinated development between regions and eco-environmental progress, it said.

The significant role of satellites is seen in the protection of resources and the eco-environment, disaster prevention and mitigation, management of emergencies, weather forecasting and climate change response, and also felt in social management and public services, urbanization, coordinated regional development, and poverty eradication.

The satellite remote-sensing system has been used by almost all departments at national and provincial levels to conduct emergency monitoring of over 100 major and catastrophic natural disasters around the country, the white paper said.

The communications and broadcasting satellite network has made direct services available to over 140 million households in China's rural and remote areas.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has guaranteed the safety of over seven million operating vehicles, provided positioning and short message communication services to over 40,000 seagoing fishing vessels, and offered precise positioning services for the freighting of supplies and tracking of individual movement for COVID-19 control, and for hospital construction.

In the next five years, China's space industry will seize the opportunities presented by the expanding digital industry and the digital transformation of traditional industries, to promote the application and transfer of space technology, the document noted.

More efforts will be made to expand and extend the scope for applying satellite remote-sensing and satellite communications technologies, and realizing the industrialized operation of the BDS, it said.

"This will provide more advanced, economical, high-quality products and convenient services for all industries and sectors and for mass consumption," it noted.

New business models for upscaling the space economy such as travel, biomedicine, debris removal and experiment services will be developed to expand the industry, it said.