China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Chinese state-owned defense company
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) is a main contractor for the Chinese space program. It is state-owned and has subsidiaries which design, develop and manufacture a range of spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground equipment. It also has a division for strategic and tactical missile systems.
History
CASC was officially established in July 1999 as part of a Chinese government reform drive, having previously been one part of the former China Aerospace Corporation. Various incarnations of the program date back to 1956.
Along with space and defense manufacture, CASC also produces machinery, chemicals, communications equipment, transportation equipment, computers, medical care products and environmental protection equipment. CASC provides commercial launch services to the international market. By the end of 2013, the corporation has registered capital of CN¥294.02 billion and employs 170,000 people.
In December 2017, the CASC was restructured from a state-owned enterprise (全民所有制企业) to a state-owned enterprise with limited liability (国有独资公司) with the approval of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). The sole shareholder is SASAC, the company's headquarters are still in Beijing, the business areas remained the same and nothing changed for the staff either.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation” as chinese state-owned defense company. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as chinese state-owned defense company. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2777589. VIAF identifies the subject as 153832450. The Library of Congress control number is n2008005939. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1999, 1956, 2013 and 2017.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation primary sources, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation archive and China research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.