(Credit: Chandan Khanna/Getty Images/AFP)
Elon Musk's SpaceX is reportedly building a spy network for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) consisting of hundreds of satellites as part of a classified government contract—and China isn't happy.
A People's Liberation Army (PLA) account wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo over the weekend that the SpaceX contract is an example of "shamelessness and double standards" from the US, Reuters reports.
"We urge US companies to not help a villain do evil," another PLA-affiliated account wrote. "All countries worldwide should be vigilant and protect against new and even bigger security threats created by the US government," the post continued.
"The United States' high-profile intelligence reconnaissance of countries or regions it is concerned about will inevitably cause some hot issues to become more sensitive or even escalate," said Chinese magazine editor Yanan Wang in an interview with Chinese state-controlled newspaper The Global Times, per Reuters.
SpaceX's US intelligence satellite network is a part of its Starshield business, which is separate from Starlink. Five sources familiar with the classified SpaceX contract confirmed it is with the NRO, Reuters said over the weekend.
The SpaceX spy satellites may be able to track individual targets on Earth and share data with US intelligence, according to the outlet. The contract is worth $1.8 billion and was signed back in 2021, as first reported by The Wall St Journal last month.
The NRO has not explicitly confirmed the SpaceX contract, but tells Reuters it's building "the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen." The WSJ also previously reported that the NRO is a SpaceX Starshield client.
This isn't SpaceX's only government contract, however. The space company regularly works with NASA, and secured a Pentagon contract last year to supply US military communications through its Starshield network.