THE BELT AND ROAD (BR) INITIATIVE PROVIDES OPPORTUNITY FOR CHINA TO DOMINATE SPACE COOPERATION IN ASIA? AN APPRAISAL OF LEGAL CHALLENGES

摘要

The co-existence of more than one regional space cooperation entity in Asia presents the competition on the cooperation of space affairs in this territory. Against this background, the Asian space powers take all possible measures for attracting more space partners. The Belt&Road Initiative (B&R), which is concerned to be a comprehensive strategy for the government of China to meet the challenges brought by the globalization, provides opportunities for space field. However, legal improvements are demanded to be made on both domestic and regional levels for responding to the relevant legal challenges. On the domestic level, the Chinese space regulation which is intended to be formulated before the year of 2020 is recommended to encompass fundamental principles friendly to non-governmental entities and foreign partners, which will be the major participants of B&R space programs, for example, the Space Information Corridor (SIC) at the present stage. On the regional level, the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) is required to transform its role from Chinese platform to compete with its Asian rivals on space cooperation affairs (e.g., Japan who has sponsored the Asia-Pacific Regional Agency Forum) to a co-builder and services provider of the B&R space programs (e.g., the SIC). Accordingly, legal coordination approached to ensure implementing the "co-sharing" principle is needed to be made between APSCO and the SIC sponsor; moreover, APSCO itself has to do modifying jobs to improve its legal framework to adapt the requirements of its new role.