We are pleased to invite you to the inaugural Science Silk Road Seminar, organized by the Volkswagen Foundation-funded project “China’s Science Silk Road and the New Geopolitics of Knowledge Production”, and co-hosted by the Berlin Contemporary China Network and the De:link//Re:link Research Consortium.
Commercial Aerospace in China: Domestic Situation, BRI Perspectives
Dr Lucie Sénéchal-Perrouault (Tsinghua University)
Commercial aerospace (商业航天) in China has attracted growing attention from international observers over the past decade, particularly as new launch enterprises conduct increasingly visible tests and launches, raising the question of the nature of these emerging actors. While Chinese commercial space can be understood as a manifestation of the global “New Space” trend – and an emulation of SpaceX – it is also shaped by domestic dynamics and by interactions among a diverse set of local players, including state-owned enterprises and private firms, as well as central and local government authorities. After outlining these issues, this presentation will ask how commercial space and global transformations in the space economy led by megaconstellations projects are likely to influence China’s international space exchanges with countries along the BRI.
Dr Lucie Sénéchal-Perrouault is a Shuimu Postdoctoral Scholar at Tsinghua University. Her research examines contemporary and historical Chinese space activities through a Science and Technology Studies (STS) lens, with a particular focus on governance and political economy in the commercial space sector. She holds a CNRS-funded PhD in History of Science from École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and was trained at Sciences Po.
Date: 12 March 2026
Time: 11:00-12:30 (CET)
Location: online
The seminar series is sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation-funded project “China’s Science Silk Road and the New Geopolitics of Knowledge Production”, an international partnership between the Lise Meitner Research Group “China in the Global System of Science”, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, and the Department of Political Science at Université Laval in Québec. Jointly led by Anna Lisa Ahlers, Han Cheng and Hang Zhou, the project advances one of the first in-depth analyses of China’s international cooperation on science, technology and innovation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).