[mrep]

> If China shoots down a SpaceX satellite, that is an act of war against the United States.

These are not government satellites and china owns the airwaves over their nation. I highly doubt the US government would retaliate whatsoever against China if they shot down a satellite that illegally interacted with their airspace.

> China wouldn’t risk it. This is a great opportunity to break the great firewall and finally give the Chinese people access to unfiltered information.

Take this with a grain of salt since this is mostly based on what I have heard hearsay, but they can jam the signals and/or monitor who transmits back and go after the citizens using said signal (and china is not a country where you want to poke the government). I doubt this will have any effect on the great firewall.

[seatotree]

Airspace extends 12 miles. Satellites are governed by space law. It would be the same as sinking a commercial American ship in international waters.