China’s Tiangong Space Station: Geopolitical Influences and Opportunity for Collaboration

China’s Tiangong space station program represents a critical milestone in its ascent as a global space power. This paper investigates China’s goals for the Tiangong Space Station, comparing them with other space station programs of the ISS and the Soviet Union. It examines how geopolitical tensions shape China’s space mission and evaluates whether China can maintain its trajectory independently. By addressing questions of geopolitical rivalry, technological self-sufficiency, and international cooperation laws, the paper argues that while China has achieved significant independence by successfully launching and operating the Tiangong Space Station in 2022, now China is at a crucial stage to cooperating with other nations to be able to sustain economic investment and creating frameworks that facilitate sustainable progress for the benefit of humanity as a whole in the space industry.