China's Supply Chain: Scale and Constraints
How does China's space supply chain compare, and where are its bottlenecks?
Chapter summary
China has built a largely self-sufficient chain at scale.
Key takeaways
- 1
It owns the dominant share of gallium, germanium and rare-earth processing that Western chains depend on, it builds satellites for two state-backed broadband constellations at rates of several hundred a year per programme, and it launched 369 payloads in 2025 and 385 in 2026 to 18 October (Setcoin catalogue analysis).
- 2
Its binding constraint is launch: rockets are expendable, reuse is only beginning (its first orbital booster recovery came in July 2026), and both Guowang and Qianfan are well behind schedule.
- 3
A second constraint is high-end electronics, where US controls limit access to advanced chips and tools.
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