Supporting STC in the Era of LEO Mega-Constellations: China's Prospective

The rapid diversification of actors and the rise of LEO mega-constellations have intensified congestion, conjunction risk, and dual-use sensitivities in orbit. Space traffic coordination (STC) provides an effective pathway for monitoring space activities, preserving the orbital environment, and enhancing operational safety. This paper examines China ' s evolving approach across law, policy, and practice. Recent policy deliberations and national standard-setting have heightened attention to STC - most notably through moves to release unified technical standards, which are a prerequisite for effective conjunction assessment and collision-avoidance coordination. Domestically, China has issued departmental rules on space-object registration, space-debris mitigation and protection and civil-launch authorization, strengthened life-cycle quality supervision for commercial missions, and updated space-debris mitigation and spacecraft-protection requirements. Internationally, China supports a UN-centred approach and participates in multilateral and regional cooperation. Overall, China ' s STC approach is best understood as a pragmatic strategy that couples technical capacity-building with higher-quality supervision to safeguard orbital interests while engaging in UN-based rule-making.