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Twin AI satellites fast-track China's global space partnerships_我的网站

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    Foreign tourists view a model of urban planning and construction at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center on August 10, 2025. Photo: VCG
Editor's Note:
Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out, "to understand China today, one must learn to understand the Communist Party of China (CPC)." With the rapid development of China's economy and society, and the steady advancement of the Chinese path to modernization, the notable achievements of the CPC have drawn extensive international attention and scholarly interest. Against this backdrop, the Global Times has launched the "CPC in Global Eyes" column, focusing on the feelings, perspectives and insights of international friends from various fields regarding the CPC's historical path and achievements.
They include those who have toured China, who deeply study the CPC in academic fields, who work, live, study, seek employment or do business in various fields in China, and who pay close attention to the CPC's policies and trends, although they haven't visited the country in person. Through their vivid personal experiences, we aim to present a multifaceted overseas view of the CPC.
In the 16th installment of this series, we followed two Latin American scholars as they toured Chinese cities, witnessing how the CPC's people-centered, long-term development vision is translated into tangible everyday improvements - and reflecting on what China's experience might offer for state capacity building in Latin America.

Standing before the glass at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, Ecuadorian scholar María Imelda Robalino gently traced the edge of the giant city model with her fingertips, her eyes reflecting the orderly contours of this megacity stretching toward the horizon. The clear lines linking green spaces along the city's iconic Huangpu River, dense residential neighborhoods and industrial parks drew the public administration scholar, who has long studied urban expansion in Latin America, into deep thought.
Beside her, Mariana Escalante, a Mexican scholar in China studies, gazed at the scrolling timeline of Shanghai's long-term urban plans on a screen and expressed her admiration for the CPC and the Chinese government's all-out efforts in development and construction. "It's very impressive that they're taking care of all the factors that influence Chinese people, not just development and the economy, but also the environment and the well-being of the people," she told the Global Times at the exhibition center.
In June, a delegation of more than 20 think tank scholars from about 15 Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Ecuador, started their tour in China. Over the course of more than 10 days, they visited cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, and went into urban planning exhibition centers, residential communities, Party schools, eco-friendly power plants and university think tanks. Robalino and Escalante were among them. Like many others in the group, they came with a shared purpose: to see for themselves what Chinese modernization under CPC leadership actually looks like.
"I always emphasize the importance of seeing and experiencing China with my own eyes, in addition to learning about it through documents, academic research or news reports," Escalante told the Global Times.
    Mariana Escalante visits an eco-friendly power company in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, on June 11, 2026. Photo: Courtesy of Escalante
From plans to everyday life
For Escalante, this trip to China was far from her first encounter with the country.
A professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and founder of Mexican Association of Sinology, she has visited China many times before - yet each journey still brings fresh discoveries. "China is a country that changes at an impressive speed, so I try to visit as often as possible," she told the Global Times. "Every trip allows me to observe new processes, and compare what I study in texts with how policies are implemented."
Robalino approached her China visit with a broader set of expectations. Her institution, Ecuador's National Institute of Advanced Studies, has a Center for Chinese Studies, and this trip was meant to deepen existing academic ties. As a scholar of public policy and innovation, she also hoped to observe firsthand how China builds state capacity.
With different expectations, the delegation set off on a "dialogue" spanning mountains and seas. In Shanghai, the Latin American scholars visited the city's urban planning exhibition center and also stepped into one of its most local residential communities. If the former showed them how a metropolis is "planned" into being, the field visit to Block 228 Changbai New Village Subdistrict, or Changbai 228, revealed how planning is translated into everyday life - through the leadership and support of CPC organizations at every level.
On an afternoon in early June, the delegation stepped into Changbai 228 in Shanghai's Yangpu district. Since its completion in 1952, it has served as a warm home for the city's industrial workers. More than seven decades later, through urban planning, it has been transformed into a mixed-use community that preserves historical memory while offering modern services.
As the delegation walked through the neighborhood, they passed one amenity after another: a convenience commercial center, an affordable sports and health center, a restaurant, and subsidized rental housing. Inside a local Party-mass service center, some residents were dancing, while music drifted out into the hall. At the entrance, several scholars paused and, unable to resist, began clapping along to the beat.
"From the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, I was able to observe how the state plans and envisions the development of the city; at Changbai 228, I was able to observe the results of that action from the perspective of the community and everyday life," Robalino told the Global Times. What intrigued her most was "how a planned intervention can become a space that does not feel rigid or imposed, but instead becomes a place for connection and coexistence." To her, the case revealed one of the less visible dimensions of public action: what happens after planning, during implementation, when public decisions become part of people's daily lives.
Escalante was equally struck by what Changbai 228 revealed about the CPC's people-centered philosophy. "What attracted my attention most at 228 was the close connection between urban renewal and the everyday well-being of residents," she said.
"Urban space should not be organized solely around commercial consumption. Changbai 228 includes commercial services, but it also has public and community spaces where people can meet, rest or take part in activities, without consumption necessarily being at the center of the experience." In Escalante's view, the CPC's people-centered approach had taken on tangible form. "Development should not be understood only in economic terms or in terms of economic gain, but also in terms of the people."
    Foreign tourists visit the Bund in Shanghai on August 17, 2026. Photo: VCG
An immersive understanding

Having visited China in person and seen firsthand how CPC policies are implemented in everyday life and put at the service of the people, these Latin American scholars with a strong interest in China gained a more immersive understanding of some of the Party's core concepts.
Several of the projects the scholars visited enabled them to observe how these concepts are translated into concrete policies and projects, Escalante said. She pointed to some terms often mentioned by the CPC and the Chinese government, such as "people-centered development," "common prosperity" and "Chinese modernization."
"People-centered development" means that development should not be measured solely by economic growth, infrastructure construction or technological progress, but also by its ability to improve people's livelihoods and quality of life, she added.
The scholar further pointed out that, "common prosperity" adds another layer to this vision: growth and modernization should benefit a broader swath of society, and development should help reduce social and regional inequalities. "What is the point of achieving high levels of economic growth or technological development if a significant part of the population is left outside its benefits?"
As for "Chinese modernization," Escalante described it as a modernization path suited to China's own historical, social and political conditions, rather than the assumption that there is only one universal model to follow.
"The leadership of the CPC is also explicitly presented as one of its central elements. From my perspective, the role of the Party is precisely one of the defining features of this process," she told the Global Times. "The Chinese government has considerable capacity to set long-term development goals, coordinate public policies and mobilize resources toward specific priorities. What interests me is how these broad ideas are translated - or are intended to be translated - into concrete policies, and what results they produce at different levels of society."
Cooperation amid challenges
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum. Data show that in 2024 trade between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries exceeded $500 billion for the first time, more than 40 times that of the beginning of this century. In 2025, the figure climbed further to $549 billion. More than 20 Latin American countries had joined the Belt and Road cooperation framework, the Xinhua News Agency reported in May 2025.
Behind the numbers are scholars' observations and reflections. Escalante believes that one of the most practical and promising areas for cooperation between China and Latin America lies in sustainable urban transportation and its integration with new energy - including electric public transit, charging infrastructure, energy storage technologies, smart traffic management systems and shared mobility services. "These are particularly relevant areas for large Latin American cities that face problems such as congestion, pollution, unequal access to transportation and long commuting times," she said.
From the perspective of public administration, Robalino pointed to at least two areas where China and Latin America could find concrete opportunities for South-South cooperation.
"One is the exchange of experience on long-term planning, policy monitoring and strengthening implementation capacity; the other is public innovation," she told the Global Times. "It would be particularly interesting to exchange methodologies for experimentation, institutional learning and scaling up innovations."
When asked about the resurgence of "Monroe Doctrine" thinking in the US, Escalante did not evade the issue. "US influence and pressure on Latin America have a long history," she said. What worries her now, she added, is that the US government has once again publicly invoked the Monroe Doctrine, "which inevitably raises questions in Latin America about sovereignty and the capacity to make our own decisions."
At the same time, Escalante argued that it is too simplistic to explain Latin America's limited autonomy solely through external pressure. "Autonomy also depends on our own capacities. A country with strong institutions, a more diversified economy, lower levels of poverty and inequality, greater scientific and technological capabilities, and a long-term development strategy also has more room to decide with whom it wants to build relations and on what terms," she said.
Looking at Latin America, Escalante said one of the most important lessons from China's experience is the country's ability to define long-term goals and, above all, to translate them into concrete policies.
"Our countries have very different political systems, histories and social conditions, so this is not about copying the Chinese model," she told the Global Times. "However, we can reflect on the importance of building institutional systems that can plan, coordinate policies, ensure a certain degree of continuity and make public decisions truly take effect."
As the scholar put it, "China's experience can prompt Latin America to ask an important question: how do we build states with enough capacity to turn development goals into concrete and lasting improvements in people's lives?"
。         People watch a Smart Dragon-3 carrier rocket, carrying Oriental Smart Eye hyperspectral satellites 01 and 02, blasting off from the sea near the city of Haiyang, east China's Shandong Province, Aug. 5, 2026. (Photo by Tang Ke/Xinhua)
A burst of flame lit the morning sky over waters off Haiyang in east China's Shandong Province on Wednesday as a Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket lifted off, drawing cheers from viewing sites along the coast.
Among the spectators were international students studying aerospace subjects in China. Aithana Perez, a Venezuelan aeronautical engineer studying space project management at Hangzhou Innovation Institute of Beihang University, said she and her classmates were excited because their studies involved spacecraft launch, design and operation.
For Marwane Oufrid, a 23-year-old Moroccan student in the same institute specializing in microsatellite technology, it was the first time he had watched a rocket launch in person.
The rocket blasted off at 10:38 a.m. (Beijing Time), delivering the Oriental Smart Eye hyperspectral satellites 01 and 02 into planned orbit.
In their respective cooperation projects with Indonesia and Uzbekistan, Satellite 01 is also known as Lampung-1 and Satellite 02 as Samarkand-2028.
Once in orbit, the satellites turned their attention back toward Earth. Lampung-1 is expected to monitor crop growth and disaster risks in Indonesia, while Samarkand-2028 is designed to support cotton cultivation and other land-monitoring applications in Uzbekistan.
Ordinary optical cameras mainly record the shape and color of objects. Hyperspectral imagers record a detailed spectrum for each image pixel, creating "spectral fingerprints" that can help determine the condition and composition of vegetation, water, soil and minerals.
These spectral "eyes" are paired with onboard AI computing modules capable of delivering up to 400 trillion operations per second. Instead of sending every raw image to the ground, the satellites can identify features, detect anomalies and extract useful information in orbit, potentially shortening delivery time from days to minutes.
Song Bingchen, co-founder of the Star.ai Spatio-temporal Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd., whose subsidiary STAR.VISION developed the satellites, compared the system to moving an AI inference platform from the ground into space.
"It changes the traditional model from transmitting images to transmitting results," Song said.
"Our satellite constellations are open to the world," Song noted, adding that the company welcomes international partners to jointly invest in, build and use the satellite networks.
In Indonesia, Lampung-1's planned applications are centered in Lampung Province on the island of Sumatra. Agriculture, forestry and fisheries accounted for 28.38 percent of the provincial economy in the third quarter of 2025. The satellite will also support marine resource management, environmental monitoring and disaster response.
Rahmat Mirzani Djausal, governor of Indonesia's Lampung Province, described the successful launch as a "historic moment" for the province.
"Cooperation with China on this satellite project is of historic and strategic significance," he said. "It marks the beginning of Lampung's transformation into a technologically advanced province."
The governor commended China's openness in sharing space technology and its commitment to long-term cooperation.
"China understands that any problems we face on one side of the world will ultimately impact the other side. Therefore, it is essential to empower regions that are left behind to make the world ultimately a better place," he said.
This cooperation also extends to people. Lampung is preparing to send over 100 young professionals to China for training in remote sensing and satellite communications, with the goal of building local capacity in satellite operation, data processing and spatial analysis.
In Uzbekistan, the applications center on cotton, grain and vegetation monitoring. Samarkand-2028 is designed to follow cotton cultivation from sowing to harvesting, while Uzbekcosmos has said hyperspectral data will also be used to produce national cotton and wheat maps.
Mukhiddin Ibragimov, deputy director of the Uzbekcosmos Agency, described the project as one of the largest international space projects in Uzbekistan's history and a milestone in its national space program.
He called the launch "a great occasion," saying it was the first time Uzbekistan had participated in an international space mission of such scale.
Ibragimov said Uzbekistan sent a technical team to China early in the project and formed a working group with Chinese specialists to develop an AI model for onboard data analysis. This model focuses on crop classification, including cotton verification, grain identification and vegetation monitoring.
The resulting data will support agriculture, water resource management, environmental protection and emergency monitoring, among other applications, he revealed.
Ibragimov said no single country can handle all space-related tasks alone.
"We believe that partnership brings value. We see that China is doing the same thing," he said, adding that Uzbekistan is exploring further satellite cooperation with China.
The projects offer a commercial example of the approach set out in China's 2021 space white paper, which called for international cooperation based on equality, mutual benefit, peaceful utilization and inclusive development.
Back in Haiyang, Oufrid said projects of this kind could give more countries an opportunity to participate in the space sector. He expressed the hope to see such cooperation happen more often and "maybe someday with Morocco as well."
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