Chang Guang Satellite Technology is a Chinese satellite company that operates Jilin-1, the country's single largest Earth-observation constellation, comprising over a hundred satellites. The company has close connections to the People's Liberation Army.
Jilin-1 is ahead of American commercial peers on revisit cadence—the number of times a satellite can image the same area—largely due to the growing size of its fleet. CGST's plan is to be capable of imaging any spot on Earth every ten minutes. The constellation uses satellite-to-ground laser communications to transfer video from orbit and is one of two known Chinese commercial constellations with video capability (the other being Zhuhai-1).
In 2023 America imposed sanctions on CGST for providing satellite images of Ukraine to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit. In April 2025 the State Department said that CGST had supplied Houthi rebels in Yemen with images that could help target American warships and other vessels in the Red Sea. The sanctions appear to have had limited effects on China's satellite industry.
Fidelity, n.: A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.