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Updated March 2006
Missile Facilities
China Great Wall Industry Corporation
China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC)
General Manager: Zhang Xin Xia
Deputy General Manager: Yu Fusheng
CGWIC was established in 1980 and is one of the principal international trade arms under the former China Aerospace Corporation (CASC). It is the sole commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide commercial satellite launch services and space technology to international clients. It established the Great Wall Aerospace Group in 1993 with 32 other entities such as China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation and China Aerospace Industry Technology Consulting Company. It is also a member of the New Era (Xinshidai) Group.
CGWIC imports and exports missiles, space technology and equipment, space launch services, precision machinery, electronics, instruments, and meters. It has offered satellite launch services since 1986 and has launched 14 satellites for international customers and completed three piggyback payload missions. CGWIC is currently developing an improved version of the CZ-2E space launch vehicle (SLV), called the CZ-2E/EPKM, and it will produce the CZ-1D SLV.
CGWIC was sanctioned twice (as a subsidiary of CASC) in May 1991 and August 1993, by the United States for its involvement in Chinese missile-related sales to Pakistan.
After the third successful launch of Motorola Iridium mobile communications satellites on 2 May 1998 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi Province, CGWIC agreed to launch an additional eight pairs of backup Iridium satellites aboard Long March 2C/SD boosters. The improved Long March rocket can carry two Iridium satellites into preset orbits in one launch, and increases Great Wall's competitiveness in the international market for medium- and low-orbit satellite launches.
However, Great Wall has been hurt by its launch failures and the US government restriction on satellite launches. In a bid to increase sales, Great Wall is now offering free reflights or cash refunds in case of launch failures and political risk protection for customers concerned that they will not be able to obtain export licenses for their satellites. The lack of business, as well as competition from other rockets, has also slowed development of a new Long March rocket that is more powerful than the Long March 3B.
[Sources: CGWIC company brochure, 1999; "China Gears up for More Iridiums," Flight International, 13-19 May 1998, p.33; "Competitiveness Boosted; Rocket's Ability Proved," China Daily, 4 May 1998; Hua Di, "China's Case: Ballistic Missile Proliferation," in Potter and Jencks, p. 165; Robert Shuey and Shirley A. Kan, "Chinese Missile And Nuclear Proliferation: Issues For Congress," CRS Issue Brief, 29 September 1995, p. 4; Risk Report, May 1995, p. 6; Warren Ferster, "China Great Wall Failure-Protection Offers Expanded," Space News, 14 February 2000, p. 10.]
This
material is produced independently for NTI by the James Martin Center for
Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and
does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently
verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents. Copyright © 2008
by MIIS.
