China’s Bifurcated Space Diplomacy and Institutional Density

What is it about?

We compared two central pillars of China’s crewed space program and observed that Chinese space diplomacy is not uniform regarding international scientific cooperation in both its approaches and results. In the case of the Chinese Space Station program (CSS), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) went through existing United Nations channels and successfully attracted international partners. However, the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) has avoided UN channels and used national and bilateral platforms. This bifurcation in approaches and results offers an intriguing puzzle concerning international cooperation: practices of institutionalised multilateral cooperation and areas of state-centric bilateral cooperation coexist in this case, and further complicated the issue of space diplomacy. To propose a potential explanation, we argue that a crucial intermediate variable — institutional density — needs further theorizing, as it seems to influence strategic choices about space diplomacy, which may lead towards success or failure.

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