The US has imposed sanctions against the Chinese satellite manufacturer Spacety and its subsidiary in Luxembourg. The reason was the provision of satellite images to the private military company Wagner, which is conducting military operations against Ukraine.
Sanctions against the Chinese satellite manufacturer
According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department, the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology Changshai Tianyi, also known as Spacety, provided assistance to Russian militants fighting against Ukraine.
Spacety transmitted to the Russian company Terra Tech satellite images of the territory of Ukraine obtained using SAR (synthetic aperture radars). And those, in turn, supplied them to the militants of the private military company Wagner.
Now Spacety and its subsidiary in Luxembourg will be sanctioned. According to US Deputy Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, this will greatly prevent Putin from providing his troops with critical information.
What is the role of Spacety in the space confrontation between the United States and China
Spacety was founded as a small satellite manufacturer in Changsha in 2016. Its founders are former employees of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and offices are located in Beijing and Luxembourg. One of the largest projects they are currently working on is a constellation of 96 SAR satellites produced together with one of the divisions of the state corporation China Electronics Technology Group (CETC).
Today, Spacety launched two small SAR satellites for C-band imaging, namely Hisea-1 in December 2020 and Chaohu-1 in February 2022, the last for the Tianxian project. Its latest satellite, Beiyou-1 (BUPT-1), was launched on January 15 this year.
China is trying to stay neutral in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. In particular, last year its representatives did not mention Russia at any international meeting, even in those projects that were impossible without it.
At the same time, the confrontation between China and the United States in the space sphere continues, and Spacety is definitely part of it. Recently, China accused the United States of dragging Maxar Technologies and SpaceX into the war in Ukraine.
The United States is really building a flexible space defense system now. And commercial companies are the most important part of it. But China uses the same strategy too. So in fact, in this confrontation, the Celestial Empire is on the side of Russia.
According to spacenews.com
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