China’s December 2025 ITU Filing: Over 200,000 Satellite Applications Signal Space Dominance Push

Beijing just dropped a megaconstellation bombshell—and reshuffled the entire orbital chessboard.

The Filing That Changes Everything

Forget incremental growth. China's late-2025 move to file for over 200,000 satellites with the International Telecommunication Union isn't an application—it's a declaration. This single submission dwarfs the total number of active satellites currently in orbit. It's a scale play that redefines 'ambition' in the final frontier.

Infrastructure as a Strategic Weapon

This isn't just about global broadband. Control the orbital highways, and you control the data—financial transactions, IoT networks, everything. A sovereign satellite swarm of this magnitude creates a parallel digital ecosystem, one that potentially bypasses traditional internet chokepoints and legacy systems. It's hard infrastructure with soft power implications.

The New Space Race Is a Bandwidth War

The scramble for spectrum and orbital slots just went hyperdrive. With over 200,000 filings, China isn't just securing its own future capacity; it's strategically occupying resource real estate that competitors now can't use. This triggers a classic land-grab dynamic—file first, figure out the business model later. Watch for other nations to respond with filings of their own, not because they need the slots, but because they can't afford not to have them.

Finance's Looming Orbital Overlord

Here's the cynical kicker for the suits: imagine a future where your high-frequency trading latency, your cross-border settlement finality, and your asset tracking all depend on who owns the satellite node overhead. This move potentially puts a foundational layer of future global finance under a single national jurisdiction's infrastructure. Try pricing that geopolitical risk into your next bond issuance.

The ultimate power move isn't launching rockets—it's filing the paperwork first. December 2025 might be remembered as the month the sky got divided, not by treaties, but by administrative filings. The race for LEO just became a sprint, and everyone else is now playing catch-up.

New institute leading the charge

A new group called the Radio Innovation Institute is leading the charge. The institute was officially established on December 30, 2025, in Xiong’an New Area. It is backed by the government and focuses on radio technology.

Seven groups came together to create this institute. The State Radio Monitoring Center is one of the founders. China Satellite Network Group Co., Ltd., which runs the country’s main satellite internet operations, is another. The list also includes Hebei Xiong’an New Area Management Committee, Hebei Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing Jiaotong University, and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

The institute’s objectives are to maximize the available radio frequencies and promote the expansion of the satellite internet industry. It is the center of what officials refer to as the “national team” approach.

Several constellations are in the works

The applications ask for permission for more than twelve different satellite groups. Some are small, with just dozens of satellites, while others are huge. The two biggest proposals are called CTC-1 and CTC-2. The Radio Innovation Institute filed both, and each one includes 96,714 satellites.

Smaller requests were submitted by other groups. Under the moniker CHINAMOBILE-L1, China Mobile intends to launch 2,520 satellites. For its SAILSPACE-1 network, Yuanxin Satellite requested 1,296 satellites. Guodian Gaoke proposed plans for 1,132 satellites in the TIANQI-3G system. The variety of companies involved suggests that the government is working with both more modern commercial companies and well-established state-run institutions.

Experts warn that filing with the ITU is just the first step. China does not necessarily have the factories, launchers, or money required to launch the satellites just because it has frequency licenses. Building and launching hundreds of thousands of satellites requires years and enormous financial resources.

Still, industry watchers think the Radio Innovation Institute could help speed things up. By bringing together resources from across the industry and using China’s large home market and strong manufacturing base, the institute might help Chinese companies MOVE faster. This could let them catch up to SpaceX, which already has thousands of Starlink satellites in space, providing internet service to customers worldwide.

Whether China can pull this off depends on many factors. The country will need to continue spending money on the project for many years. Scientists and engineers will need to solve tough technical problems. Chinese officials will need to work with other countries through the ITU to settle disputes about who gets to use which frequencies and orbital locations.

The satellite internet race is heating up. China’s massive filing shows the country plans to be a major player in this market. The coming years will reveal whether these ambitious plans become reality.

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