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Boeing Has No Idea Who Is Buying Their Satellites. Or Do They?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
December 9, 2018
Filed under ,
Boeing Has No Idea Who Is Buying Their Satellites. Or Do They?

Boeing Was Going to Build Satellites for a China-Funded Firm. Why It Just Backed Out of the Deal, Fortune
“Boeing has canceled a deal to build a communications satellite — which it has almost completed — on the basis that the startup that ordered it has defaulted on payments. The sudden cancellation, however, comes on the heels of a report that detailed how the project was actually financed by a firm owned by the Chinese government. The Wall Street Journal exposed the situation earlier this week. The startup that ordered the satellite is called Global IP, and it wanted to use it for African Internet access. However, the deal was financed by an outfit called China Orient Asset Management, which is owned by the Chinese finance ministry and bankrolls military technology suppliers in the country. According to that report, some national security officials suspected Boeing was trying to bypass a ban on selling satellites directly to China. The ban is in place because of fears over the Chinese military gaining access to sensitive technology.”
2 Companies Pay Penalties For Improving China Rockets, NY Times (2003)
“Two leading American aerospace companies have agreed to pay a record $32 million in penalties to settle civil charges that they unlawfully transferred rocket and satellite data to China in the 1990’s. The agreement, which was completed on Tuesday and released today, comes two months after the State Department accused the companies, Hughes Electronics Corporation, a unit of General Motors, and Boeing Satellite Systems of 123 violations of export laws in connection with the Chinese data transfers. In a joint statement the companies said they ”express regret for not having obtained licenses that should have been obtained” in the 1990’s by a Hughes unit, the Hughes Space and Communications Company, which was acquired in 2000 by Boeing.”
Keith’s note: This has happened before. And this time Boeing only discovered the Chinese financing of this satellite in the past few days when the Wall Street Journal figured it out? Really Boeing?

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

9 responses to “Boeing Has No Idea Who Is Buying Their Satellites. Or Do They?”

  1. John Kavanagh says:
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    It’s only been 15 years since the State Department last sued Boeing for aiding China with transfer of aerospace know how. https://www.nytimes.com/200

  2. ThomasLMatula says:
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    Sad, just sad…

    • Michael Spencer says:
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      Really? This is international trade at its capitalistic best. Just a cost of doing business- pay a fine with dollars 15 years down the road.

      What do you expect? Patriotism?

  3. Kirk says:
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    If the satellite was to be delivered directly from Boeing to SpaceX for launch (which was scheduled for sometime in 2019), and control handed over to the customer only after it was on orbit and checked out, how was there any danger of technology transfer?

    • fcrary says:
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      Operating the spacecraft would involve technology transfer. Knowing what commands to send up, and when to do so, requires a fair knowledge of how the spacecraft works. The equivalent of an user’s manual would probably be subject to export controls.

      • Daniel Woodard says:
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        This is all a farce. Apple, Samsung, HP, Tesla, all have or are building major facilities in China. They aren’t there to buy cheap Chinese labor, as US leaders like to claim. They are there because they know that the largest future market for their global businesses is in China. It is time for us to become citizens of the galaxy – or be left in the dust.

        As for satellite technology, European manufacturers already advertise products as “ITAR free”.

        • fcrary says:
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          I was describing the regulations as I understand them, not saying I agreed with them. And those ITAR free products aren’t limited to hardware. There are all sorts of software packages, used to design and operate spacecraft. In a number of cases the Europeans have developed their own, either to avoid ITAR or to avoid depending on something which might end up under ITAR in the future. And that means incompatible data formats, people who need to learn to use multiple software packages which basically do the same thing, debates over why the different software occasionally give different results, etc…

  4. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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    There might be another area of concern for parking a Boeing comsat over Africa that benefits China. One of the largest underrported stories of the decade is the massive amount of commercial investment and infrastructure that China has made all across Africa. China is definitely playing the long game to establish a huge extractive resources and capital advantage presence on the continent, while the Western world and the US are stagnant or actually diminishing their nonmilitary role there ( everywhere in Africa but the equatorial west coast where oil exploration by private industry is accelerating, mostly by European interests). China is really building out Africa’s eastern regions with lucrative deals and generous projects…investing a billions yuan somewhere with the intent of getting 2-3 billion yuan in return down the road without western comptetition or interference.

    Hence the need for a Boeing comsat , useful in many ways for that long game, besides having Chinese access to the American tech . And we let them…