China’s latest space communications experiment has reset expectations for what a “low power” link from orbit can do, with a 2 watt laser pushing data at gigabit speeds from geostationary distance and eclipsing the performance associated with Starlink’s mass-market satellites. The result is not a drop-in replacement for existing broadband constellations, but it is a sharp signal that the physics ceiling for space internet is far higher than today’s commercial services suggest.
I see this as a pivotal moment in the race to move more data through the sky, where a single demonstration can shift how militaries, telecoms and regulators think about the next generation of orbital infrastructure and the balance of power between China and Western space players.
From candle-level power to gigabit speeds
The core claim behind the excitement is simple: a Chinese team has shown that a 2 watt optical link from geostationary orbit can sustain around 1 Gbps, roughly five times the throughput associated with typical Starlink user experience. Reporting on the experiment notes that the Chinese team’s laser feat reached 1 Gbps from GEO using only 2 watts of optical power, a result that is described as about five times faster than Starlink’s average satellite internet speeds and that directly compares a single high orbit link with the performance of a widely deployed low Earth orbit network 1 Gbps from GEO. That kind of ratio matters less as a consumer marketing line and more as a proof that optical techniques can squeeze far more capacity out of each watt of power than conventional radio systems.
Earlier coverage of the same breakthrough frames it as a “Candle Powered Breakthrough,” emphasizing that the beam power is in the range of a household light source rather than an industrial laser, and credits the experiment to Professor Wu Jian of Peking University and Dr. Liu Chao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the work that turned this low power signal into a stable high speed link Candle Powered Breakthrough. When a system at that power level can outperform a mature commercial network, it suggests that the bottleneck in space internet is no longer just launch capacity or satellite count, but how aggressively engineers are willing to push optics and signal processing.
How the Chinese laser compares with Starlink’s real-world performance
To understand what “five times faster than Starlink” actually means, I start with how Starlink itself characterizes its network. The company says that over the past year it has expanded to 42 new countries, territories and other markets around the world while growing by 2.7 times in capacity, and that as a result Starlink can now offer higher speeds and more reliable service in most states and territories where it operates 42 new countries and 2.7 times capacity. That scale is the benchmark the Chinese laser is implicitly measured against: a global, commercially proven network that has already pushed satellite broadband far beyond the geostationary dishes of the 2000s.
Independent assessments of user experience add another layer. One detailed look at reliability over the summer lists “Key Takeaways” that include “Uptime Performance” and notes that Starlink achieves 99%+ uptime in most areas, with brief micro outages during satellite handoffs that can still frustrate gamers and remote workers who need perfectly steady latency 99%+ uptime performance. When Chinese sources say their optical link is five times faster than Starlink, they are not claiming to beat that kind of availability or coverage, but they are arguing that on a pure bits per second basis, a 2 watt laser from high orbit can outrun a typical user’s Starlink connection by a wide margin.
Inside the 36,000 km leap from Space to Earth
The physical feat behind the headlines is the distance the signal traveled. Reports describe a Chinese satellite in a high orbit around 36,000 KM From Earth, using a 2 watt laser to send data to the ground while maintaining a clear and reliable transmission despite the long path through the atmosphere 36,000 KM From Earth. That distance is roughly geostationary altitude, where satellites appear to hang over a fixed point on the equator and can cover a third of the planet’s surface, but where signal loss and atmospheric distortion are far more severe than in low Earth orbit.
Other accounts echo the same geometry, describing a Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink with a 2 Watt Laser from 36,000 KM Above Earth and emphasizing that a Chinese spacecraft has just demonstrated a game changer for satellite communication by sustaining that link from 36,000 KM Above Earth with only a few watts of optical power 36,000 KM Above Earth. When I compare that to Starlink’s low Earth orbit shells, which trade shorter distances for more satellites and constant motion, the Chinese approach looks like a bet that a smaller number of very capable high orbit nodes can shoulder a disproportionate share of global backhaul if the optics are good enough.
The adaptive optics trick that tamed turbulent skies
Raw power and distance are only part of the story, because any laser link from orbit has to fight through turbulence, clouds and scattering that can shred a narrow beam. Reporting on the Chinese experiment explains that the researchers developed a novel AO MDR system to capture scattered signals, describing a method that is 5x faster than Starlink and that lets a Chinese satellite beam data with minimal laser power while still recovering enough photons on the ground to reconstruct a clean 1 Gbps stream 5x faster with AO MDR. In practical terms, that means the link does not have to rely on a perfectly aligned, unobstructed path, but can harvest light that has been bounced and blurred by the atmosphere.
Chinese coverage of the same test underscores that point by noting that Chinese scientists used a groundbreaking method to push data through turbulent skies from Space to Earth in less than a second, and that the Chinese satellite achieves 5 times Starlink speed with a 2 watt laser in a 36,000 km orbit by leaning on this adaptive optics and multi detector approach rather than brute force power Chinese satellite achieves 5 times Starlink speed. From my perspective, that is the real innovation: not just that the link is fast, but that it is robust enough to survive the messy real atmosphere that any operational system will have to face.
China’s narrative: outpacing Starlink with a Watt Laser
Chinese and international commentary have leaned heavily into the comparison with Starlink, framing the experiment as a symbolic victory in the space internet race. One widely shared summary declares that China Outpaces Starlink Using a 2 Watt Laser, describing how a Chinese satellite has achieved internet speeds five times faster than Starlink and presenting the 2 Watt Laser as a direct challenge to Western dominance in space based connectivity China Outpaces Starlink Using a 2 Watt Laser. That framing is as much about perception as physics, but it shows how quickly a technical milestone can be woven into narratives about national strength and technological parity.
More formal reporting from the region states that China’s 2 watt satellite laser outperforms Starlink with 1 Gbps speed from 36,000 km, asking whether this is a breakthrough for communications or a warning shot in a new space war and explicitly naming China and Starlink in the same breath as it notes that despite the beam being only 2 watts, the link still exceeded Starlink’s average satellite internet speeds at a distance of 36,000 km China’s 2 watt satellite laser outperforms Starlink. I read that as a deliberate attempt to position the experiment not just as a lab success, but as a strategic signal that China can match or exceed the flagship commercial system associated with the United States and its allies.
Starlink’s response: more satellites, more speed, more resilience
Starlink is not standing still while China experiments with lasers. Over the course of this year, SpaceX has rolled out new satellites, ground terminals and software upgrades that significantly change the baseline for any comparison. One detailed update notes that SpaceX Boosts Starlink Network Speeds by Over 50% in 2025, explaining that SpaceX has dramatically increased Starlink’s network performance in 2025, with more than a 50% improvement in both speed and responsiveness for users who already had service Over 50% faster Starlink in 2025. That kind of incremental but steady gain means that any static “five times faster” comparison risks going stale quickly as the commercial network evolves.
At the same time, Starlink’s strength has never been peak speed alone, but the combination of coverage, uptime and ecosystem support. The same reliability analysis that cites 99%+ uptime also points out that Starlink’s micro outages tend to be short enough that most streaming, video calls and cloud apps ride through them without visible disruption, even if competitive gamers still notice the occasional spike Key Takeaways on Starlink reliability. When I weigh that against a single Chinese demonstration link, I see two very different stages of maturity: one is a deployed utility with known quirks, the other is a high performance prototype that still has to prove it can scale into a network with similar resilience.
What “surpassing Starlink” really means for the next decade
Beyond the immediate comparison, the Chinese laser test hints at where space communications could go if optical links move from experiments to infrastructure. One financial analysis of the project notes that China’s 2 watt laser travels 36,000 km, surpassing Starlink, and goes on to list a series of performance and investment metrics, including figures such as 11.001, 2.358, 19.428, 21.987 and 2.153, while explaining that the technology is further enhanced by an optical path of more than 36,700 kilometres that pushes the limits of current satellite communication design 36,000 km surpassing Starlink. Those numbers underscore that this is not just a lab curiosity, but a system being evaluated in the context of real world deployment and potential commercial or strategic returns.
Other coverage frames the same achievement in more dramatic language, with headlines like China Strikes Hard and Chinese Satellite Pulverizes Starlink With a 2 Watt Laser 36,000 KM From Earth, describing how a Chinese satellite has just demonstrated a link that some commentators see as a game changer for satellite communication and a sign that Chinese capabilities in this domain are catching up fast China Strikes Hard with a 2 Watt Laser. I read those narratives as part technical analysis and part geopolitical messaging, but they all point to the same underlying reality: the ceiling for space based data rates is rising quickly, and any network that wants to stay relevant over the next decade will have to grapple with lasers, adaptive optics and high orbit backbones, not just more radio dishes in low Earth orbit.
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