China may have found a way to surpass the United States militarily — in space.

Two years ago, China successfully launched four commercial satellites; the US launched two. The Chinese government spends billions of dollars annually on their space program, while the US continues to strip funding for NASA (in 2012, it was 0.48 percent of the federal budget).

China now has a manned spacecraft; we don’t. The only way our astronauts reach the International Space Station — for now — is through Russia, and if relations with Putin continue to deteriorate, that may no longer be an option. And China has set the year 2022 as the launch date for its first space station.

“This is the golden age for China’s space program,” says Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst & China Project Manager at the Global Security Program Union of Concerned Scientists. Though Kulacki says China still lags behind us technologically, he adds, “China invests more in space. They have a younger, larger, more highly motivated cadre of space professionals focused on clear objectives.”

Those objectives include finding ways to trump the US, which relies on satellites for targeting, reconnaissance and strategy.

In its 2014 report on China, the Department of Defense noted that China has prioritized “destroying or capturing satellites or other sensors” in order to win wars on the ground. “[This] will deprive an opponent of initiative on the battlefield and [make it difficult] for them to bring their precision-guided weapons into full play.”

China invests more in space. They have a younger, larger, more highly motivated cadre of space professionals focused on clear objectives. - Analyst Gregory Kulacki

“China is winning the space race,’” said Foreign Policy magazine in 2013. “The Chinese have not only matched many of the achievements of the Americans and Russians in space — and in far less time than it took their predecessors to reach the same milestones — they did so while avoiding their biggest mistakes.”

Since the end of the Clinton administration, it has been against federal law for NASA to work with the Chinese — a policy many experts, including the famed astronaut Chris Hadfield, think is misguided. Last week, Hadfield traveled to China with the Association of Space Explorers to encourage Sino-American cooperation and collaboration. Great Britain, for example, has budgeted $80 billion for joint space work with China and India, the latter nation successfully launching a satellite to Mars last week.

“Enmity and suspicion,” Hadfield said, “could be overcome.”

He pointed to the success of the International Space Station in the immediate wake of the Cold War and sees joint American and Chinese efforts as likely to encourage better relations here on Earth.

“The US and China need symbolic ways to cooperate beyond panda bears,” he said. “And this is a really good way to do it.”