China’s Search for Alien Life: From the ‘Sky Eye’ to Mars Samples and the ‘Earth 2.0’ Mission

Adrian Mercer

Whether life exists beyond Earth is one of humanity’s oldest questions. Modern science, however, does not search for answers in mysterious sightings or unverified stories. It mainly looks for three kinds of evidence: artificial signals that could come from an intelligent civilization, biological traces left by microbial life, and planets or moons capable of supporting life. China is now expanding its scientific infrastructure across all three areas.

One point must be clear: China has not announced any confirmed discovery of alien life. Its main achievement is not finding extraterrestrials, but building the telescopes, space missions, planetary science programs, laboratories and data-analysis capabilities required to search for them scientifically.

The best-known instrument in this effort is the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, or FAST, in Guizhou Province. Known as the “China Sky Eye,” FAST is the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. Along with studying pulsars and interstellar gas, one of its scientific objectives is to search for extremely weak radio signals that might originate from an extraterrestrial technological civilization.

Systematic SETI observations using FAST began in 2019. Its extraordinary sensitivity allows it to detect possible astronomical signals, but also communications from mobile networks, satellites, aircraft, radar systems and other human-made sources. For this reason, one of the greatest challenges is not simply detecting an unusual signal, but proving that it did not originate on Earth.

In 2022, reports spread worldwide that China might have detected an alien signal after FAST recorded several unusual narrow-band signals. Subsequent analysis, however, found no evidence that they came from an extraterrestrial civilization. The episode illustrated a fundamental principle of SETI research: a signal appearing once is not enough. It must recur, come from the same region of the sky and ideally be independently confirmed by other instruments.

Another major Chinese research front is the search for potentially habitable exoplanets. In 2025, an international team led by Chinese scientists identified Kepler-725c, a “super-Earth” believed to orbit within a region associated with the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. This does not mean life exists there. Rather, such planets provide important targets in the search for environments where liquid water might be possible.

China’s proposed Earth 2.0, or ET, space mission is designed to push this search much further by identifying Earth-like planets. Another concept, the Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey, or CHES, aims to examine Sun-like stars within roughly 32 light-years of Earth for Earth-sized planets. These missions are not directly searching for aliens. Instead, they could determine where future searches for life should be concentrated.

China is also investigating extraterrestrial chemistry connected with the origins of life. Studies of lunar samples returned by the Chang’e-5 and Chang’e-6 missions have identified nitrogen-bearing organic compounds. The term “organic” does not mean that living organisms or alien remains have been discovered. Such compounds can form through non-biological processes. Their importance lies in helping scientists understand whether some of the chemical building blocks necessary for life may have been delivered to the early Earth by asteroids, comets or other material from space.

The Tianwen-2 mission similarly aims to collect material from an asteroid and study the chemistry of the early Solar System. An even more significant project could be Tianwen-3, which China plans to launch around 2028 with the goal of returning samples from Mars to Earth.

If successful, Tianwen-3 would allow Martian rocks and soil to be examined in advanced terrestrial laboratories for minerals, organic molecules, isotopes, microscopic structures and possible signs of ancient or present life. It could become one of the most important scientific efforts to determine whether Mars ever supported living organisms.

China is no longer treating these projects as isolated missions. Its long-term space science strategy for 2024–2050 identifies Earth-like planets, possible signs of life on Mars, the habitability of icy moons and the broader search for extraterrestrial life as major scientific priorities.

China’s approach therefore revolves around two fundamental questions: Is there a technological civilization somewhere beyond Earth, and are there environments elsewhere where life could emerge or survive? FAST addresses the first by listening for artificial radio signals, while exoplanet surveys, lunar samples, asteroid missions and Mars exploration address the second.

No confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial life has yet been found. But China’s expanding scientific infrastructure demonstrates that the search has moved far beyond speculation and sensationalism. It is increasingly becoming a rigorous scientific enterprise based on radio telescopes, spacecraft, laboratories and enormous volumes of data.