China is drawing attention to its competition with the United States in the space domain by raising the possibility of military applications for space-based solar power systems. While the U.S. conceived the technology in the 1960s as a large-scale clean energy source and maintains a lead in core technology, China is moving faster in actual deployment by prioritizing military purposes, analysts say.
According to Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering on Tuesday, Duan Baoyan, a professor at Xidian University who leads China's flagship space solar power project "Zhuri," revealed in a recent paper published in the Chinese academic journal *Scientia Sinica Informationis* that the design of an orbit-based solar power station is being overhauled to incorporate military functions. He explained that the system can be designed to perform a wide range of missions beyond simple energy transmission, including communications, navigation, reconnaissance, electronic interference and remote control.
