China faces a tall order in its efforts to catch up to Elon Musk's SpaceX satellite service. SpaceX's Starlink already has nearly 7,000 operational satellites in orbit and serves around 5 million customers in more than 100 countries, according to SpaceX. China is aiming for a similar scale and hopes to have around 38,000 satellites across three of its low earth orbit internet projects, known as Qianfan, Guo Wang and Honghu-3. Aside from Starlink, European-based Eutelsat OneWeb has also launched more than 630 low earth orbit, or LEO, internet satellites. "In certain countries, China could see this as almost like a differentiator.

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Persons: SpaceX's Starlink, Guo Wang, OneWeb, Starlink, Steve Feldstein, Feldstein, Blaine Curcio, Juliana Suess, Suess Organizations: Elon, SpaceX, Carnegie Endowment, International, Orbital Gateway Consulting, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Huawei Locations: China, European, U.S, Western Europe, Canada, Russia, Afghanistan, Syria, Africa, Ukraine