The Implications of China’s BRI in Space with Dr. Fumiko Sasaki

In this episode of "Asia in Washington," hosts Adriana Reinecke and Dylan Harris sit down with Dr. Fumiko Sasaki, lecturer on East Asian Security for the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University, to discuss the Spatial Information Corridor component of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Dr. Sasaki explains the importance of space to China’s economic development and security posture as articulated by President Xi Jinping, describing China’s trajectory to its emergence as a major space power. She further explains the implications of China’s provision of satellite services to client nations via its recently-completed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and how this provision serves to expand China’s global influence.

In addition to teaching at Columbia SIPA, Dr. Sasaki is also a fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS, where she earned her M.A. and Ph.D. As a fellow, her research focuses on how space capabilities affect the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific region. Dr. Sasaki has spent the past two years examining China’s Belt and Road Initiative Spatial Information Corridor (BRI-SIC) and China’s space capabilities and intentions, and has released four publications on the subject. Her current research focuses on tailoring the Space Strategy of the ‘QUAD plus Taiwan’ to stabilize geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region.

Recorded on Tuesday, November 15, 2022. Sound-edited by Dylan Harris. Produced by Neave Denny.
From Asia in Washington, an Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies Podcast.

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