China has become competitive in commercial space launches by engaging in the same reckless behavior it used to build the world’s largest intermediate missile inventory.
A Rand Project Air Force study published during President Trump’s first year in office revealed that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had achieved parity with the United State regarding a potential Taiwan or South China Sea military conflict. As a one-party state and non-signatory to the US-Soviet 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the PLA went on a crash program that ignored individual safety and environmental concerns to build 2,000 non-treaty compliant ballistic and cruise missiles.
