China tests anti-satellite technology, angers US

The White House reacted with alarm on Jan. 18 after China successfully destroyed a satellite with a ballistic missile, the first space test of such offensive military technology by any nation in more than 20 years. The test comes amid increasing fears within the Bush administration over potentially hostile nations and terrorist groups acquiring technology to destroy crucial US space systems on which the country–and particularly its military–heavily depends. The test, which was conducted on Jan. 11, was originally reported in the magazine American Aviation Week and Space Technology and confirmed on Jan. 18 by US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite 537 miles above the Earth through "kinetic impact," or by slamming into it, said Johndroe. The destruction of the Chinese satellite was the first such action in space since the US carried out a similar test in 1985, when Ronald Reagan was pursuing the "Star Wars" anti-missile defense program. Chinese officials, while not officially confirming that the test took place, have signaled that the test was intended to force the US into talks aimed at abolishing weapons in space. "As the Chinese government, our principle stand is to promote the peaceful use of space," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said. "We oppose the militarization of space. In the past, in the present and in the future, we are opposed to any arms race in space. Of this everyone can be confident." While the test drew international condemnation, in large part because the debris field created by the impact could potentially harm other satellites, the US response has been somewhat muted. The Bush administration, however, is privately seething over the event and is believed to be preparing to turn the incident into a major diplomatic spat. The concern in the US is that the satellite-killing missile test demonstrated China has the capability to knock out its military satellite system, which the Pentagon depends on for navigation and surveillance. US military and diplomatic analysts said a Chinese attack on about 40 to 50 satellites in low orbit would leave the US military blinded within a matter of hours. Adam Ward, the executive director of the Washington office of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the US could be worried that China was developing anti-satellite weapons to weaken US surveillance in case of US intervention over Taiwan. The White House lodged its formal protest of the test on Jan. 18, which said that China's "development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area." Last year the US expressly ignored Chinese and Russian calls for a global ban on the development of space weapons. Instead, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that asserted the need for "freedom of action in space" for the United States. The policy asserts that the US has the right to conduct whatever research, development and "other activities" in space that it deems necessary for its own national interests. It further warns that the US will take those actions necessary to protect its space capabilities "and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile" to those interests. While public perception of the US space program is shaped by press coverage of such issues as the exploration of Mars and bases on the moon, national security is both a primary driving force of US space policy and its major funding recipient. US military dominance of space is a big concern for countries like Russia and China, who have significant space programs of their own. Many skeptics of this policy insist that China had a right to challenge the United States' effective monopoly of space. They noted that Beijing has repeatedly pressed for the US to sign agreements outlawing arms in space, overtures Washington has repeatedly rejected. Gary Samore, the director of studies at the New York City-based Council on Foreign Relations and a proliferation expert, said in an interview: "I think it makes perfect sense for the Chinese to do this both for deterrence and to hedge their bets. It puts pressure on the US to negotiate agreements not to weaponize space." "It could be a shot across the bow," said Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a private group in Washington that tracks military programs. "For several years, the Russians and Chinese have been trying to push a treaty to ban space weapons. The concept of exhibiting a hard-power capability to bring somebody to the negotiating table is a classic cold war technique." Hitchens and other critics have accused the Bush administration of conducting secret research on advanced anti-satellite weapons using powerful ground-based lasers, which would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit. The largely secret project, parts of which were made public through Air Force budget documents submitted to Congress last year, appears to be part of a wide-ranging effort by the Bush administration to develop space weapons, both defensive and offensive.