A planned spaceport in Djibouti may give China a boost
The latter is trying to develop a private space industry to compete with America’s
When China began building its first overseas military outpost—a naval base in Djibouti—America and its allies were alarmed. The facility, which opened in 2017, sits just 13km (eight miles) from America’s largest base in Africa. France, Japan and Italy have bases there, too. Before long the Americans accused China’s forces of shining lasers at their pilots. China complained that Western aircraft were overflying its outpost to photograph it.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Preparing for launch”
From the January 21st 2023 edition
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