US losing pace in military space race against China

John Ransom is a political and financial writer and editor whose work has appeared at Townhall.com, Newsmax, the Daily Caller and IBT. He splits his time between the US and Asia.A senior US general in the recently created Space Force has warned Beijing could outgun Washington by 2030. Why is Joe Biden allowing this to happen?

Perhaps the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their acolytes knew exactly what they were buying when they allegedly supported Biden for president of the United States and tacitly paid his son Hunter for services rendered. 

Over the weekend the top US general warned that China could surpass America in the race for space by the end of this decade, despite the rapid stand-up of the new US Space Command force under President Donald Trump. 

The move by Trump was an indication that the US was finally getting serious about seizing the high ground in space against all comers. 

“Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and a small but vocal group believe that the Space Force should move aggressively to protect American interests, building military bases on the moon before global competitors can do so,” said the New York Times as the Space Force was being debated and ultimately approved.

 READ MORE: ‘Mystery hut’ spotted on dark side of Moon

But since the creation of the Space Force last year, President Joe Biden has been elected, and the urgency to join the military race into space with China has been noticeably lacking at the White House. 

In fact, despite still having an advantage, if not outright dominance, in space technology, the pace of the race now favors Communist China over the US, according to Space Command’s top brass. 

Gen. David Thompson, vice chief of space operations for the US Space Force, warned over the weekend at a conference of senior military leaders that Beijing is deploying its space military twice as fast as the United States. 

“The fact, that in essence, on average, they are building and fielding and updating their space capabilities at twice the rate we are means that very soon, if we don’t start accelerating our development and delivery capabilities, they will exceed us,” Gen. Thompson said at the Reagan National Defense Forum in a keynote address, adding that “2030 is not an unreasonable estimate” for China to surpass the US. 

Which means that it will be extremely difficult if Biden slightly delays the development of the Space Force over the next three years he is slated to be President. As others have noted, the administration has misgivings about a new force they see as Trump’s baby. As The Atlantic put it: “With Trump gone, the new administration now finds itself having to embrace a piece of government saturated with MAGA spin and disdained by the left, and make it seem as ordinary as it actually is.”

This indifference to Space Force’s tasks and needs is worrying many military top brass, particularly because US military capabilities rely to a larger extent on space-based capabilities, like satellites, than China does. 

“Thompson, the vice chief of operations, also said that China may soon have the potential to take out US sensors and reach first-strike capability in space, adding ‘that’s one of the reasons that the Space Force was created,’” reported Axios.

So how is the President delaying the development of the Space Force? 

If you doubt that Biden can’t muck up the force just a little, ask yourself why Vice President Kamala Harris is overseeing the stand-up of the command through the National Space Council, which will develop a comprehensive policy for the White House on space under a “United States Space Priorities Framework.”

 READ MORE: Top US military official speaks on ‘hypersonic weapons race’ with China

As the White House has repeatedly said, this means that Space Force is “under the direct supervision” of Harris, in “delivering on the new administration’s top priorities: the economy, inclusion, climate change, and global leadership.”

Notice that defense against China is missing from those top priorities. 

This looks like a policy for outer space that works as well as the country’s southern border, another of Harris’s responsibilities. 

Soon, the only thing that the Chinese communists will need to do to invade America will be to arrive from space and ask for jobs, housing and social assistance. Problem solved. 

This is the same vice president that 52% of Americans don’t trust to do her job. Even worse is that her colleagues don’t trust her to do her job. “Kamala Harris’s office has been shaken by an exodus of senior staff, leading to further questions over her political future and management style,” said the UK’s Times over the weekend, citing a new poll showing only 28% approval for Harris amongst voters. 

So why does Biden trust her if the voters and her colleagues don’t? The short answer is that he likely doesn’t believe at all she’ll do a good job. 

But just as the administration was anxious to water down legislation that holds Chinese communists to account for their slave labor practices, the White House doesn’t seem to care if the US loses the space race against China. 

Sometimes we have to accept things at face value. When things look bad on the face of it, they probably really are that bad. 

By most accounts, Biden and Harris can’t stand each other. By many accounts, Biden has given Harris a portfolio of problems at which he knows she will fail. By many accounts, Vice President Harris comes across as somebody who is lazy, unprepared for her briefings, and unready to do the yeoman’s work of standing up a legitimate, credible military force. 

Politicians often appoint hated former rivals to posts and then actively undermine them to make sure they fail. I get that. But when these petty, personal squabbles threaten the nation’s best interests and undo the advantages the US currently has in space against our Chinese adversary, it’s time to think again.

It’s galling to see a space policy that was jump-started into high gear last year by the Trump administration, now languishing under Biden. He’s giving Beijing exactly what it wants. 

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