Standing on China’s own

The “Two Bombs, One Satellite” project is still in progress. No one knows when and how its results will emerge.

HAN WOO-DUKThe author is a senior reporter of the China Lab. “Two Bombs, One Satellite” refers to the atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb and a satellite. The term was coined in the 1960s. At the time, Mao Zedong’s China was isolated. The United States had been an enemy since shortly after the Korean War, and the Soviet Union grew distant due to ideological disputes.

Chairman Mao had to survive the threats from both the United States and the Soviet Union. It needed nuclear weapons and launched a project titled, “Two Bombs, One Satellite.” China succeeded in developing an atomic bomb in 1964 and a hydrogen bomb in 1967, and launching a satellite in 1970. This was the outcome of self-reliant efforts in its backyard, avoiding the eyes of the United States and the Soviet Union.

Has the clandestine “Two Bombs, One Satellite” project begun again? This is what came into my mind watching the ongoing controversy over the Huawei 5G phone. The key is how China has gotten through U.S. sanctions and secured 7-nano chips. It has avoided the eyes of the U.S. and achieved it on its own.

President Xi Jinping’s China follows Chairman Mao’s national secrecy. In March 2023, China reshuffled its state organizations and established a new Central Science and Technology Commission under the Communist Party of China (CPC). The organization takes charge of strategic planning and policymaking on science and technology. Instead, the existing National Science, Technology and Education Leading Group in the government was abolished. The CPC will take the lead in the country’s high-tech war with the United States.

How the Central Science and Technology Commission operates is completely veiled. There was only an announcement that a meeting was held once on July 10. It is not known what the meeting was about, who attended, or where it was held.

The United States has no idea what technologies China is developing. It is also unclear whether technologies are used for military purposes. Therefore, the United States cannot sanction or obstruct what China is developing. The United States could easily get backstabbed, as with the case of Huawei’s 5G phone. China is excited about a “self-reliant victory.” That’s certainly an embarrassment for the United States because China managed to find a loophole in the tight blockade.

President Xi declared a “New Type of Big Country System” in science and technology. It is a Mao-style national support system in which the state mobilizes all its resources. The only difference is that it now takes “market demand” into account. AI, quantum computers, semiconductors, high-tech equipment manufacturing and new materials have been selected as core technologies to develope within the framework of the new-type system.

The “Two Bombs, One Satellite” project is still in progress. No one knows when and how its results will emerge. It’s even scarier as no one can tell.