In recent years, China has implemented the “Military-Civil Fusion” Strategy to develop high-resolution satellite imagery capabilities because of its ambition to build up global all-weather reconnaissance capabilities. This paper aims to analyze China’s civil telemetry capacities through discussing the “Ziyuan”(資源) and “Gaofen”(高分) series of satellites and newly launched commercial satellites.

This article consists of two sections. The first focuses on the evolution of the “Ziyuan” and “Gaofen” series and the policies for developing civil telemetry satellites since the 13th Five-Year Plan (十三五). The second section further analyzes the current state of China’s civil space telemetry technology based on the characteristics of ground equipment and the “Ziyuan” and “Gaofen” series of satellites, primarily focusing on optical satellites and synthetic aperture radar satellites.

Despite their importance, telemetry satellites involved in ocean and weather observation, as well as the covert PLA reconnaissance constellation “Jiangbin”(尖兵), “Yaogan”(遙感) and “Shiyan”(試驗), are outside the scope of this paper.