China does not want Starlink in its country. She actually asked Elon Musk not to sell his antennas in the country. The broadband Internet connection via satellite will therefore not be available worldwide as planned.
SpaceX has already launched Starlink in Antarctica at a science base, but the aerospace company has yet to deploy its antennas in every country. Elon Musk actually revealed that China asked him not to sell his Starlink antennas in the country.
At present, Starlink is already available or will soon be available in many countries. The interactive map on the website of the satellite Internet service provider actually shows that some countries are grayed out. Russia, China, Venezuela, Cuba and others are among them.
China disapproved of Starlink deployment in Ukraine
In an interview with the Financial Times, Elon Musk revealed that ” Beijing has clearly disapproved of its recent deployment of Starlink in Ukraine “. The Chinese government asked him ” the assurance that he would not sell Starlink in China “. It is recalled that Elon Musk came to the aid of Ukraine following the invasion of Russia by providing Starlink antennas. Ukrainian Vice President Mykhailo Fedorov had personally asked him to make Starlink active in Ukraine.
Starlink’s goal is to provide a high-speed Internet connection in the most rural and isolated areas of the world. This is also the reason why SpaceX wants to put Starlink antennas on American school buses that serve rural communities where not all children have a broadband connection at home.
We don’t yet know if Elon Musk plans to listen to the Chinese government’s request. In any case, other nearby countries do not have access to Starlink either. For example, Taiwan, Mongolia and Vietnam are pending “ regulatory approval as seen on Starlink’s map. US billionaire faces international pressure which are hampering the deployment of its satellite Internet access service. However, it should not be forgotten that Tesla has a Gigafactory in Shanghai. It has already sold more than 80,000 electric cars.
Source: The Verge