Concern over China's missile test

[frigidmagi]

BBC

China is facing international criticism over a weapons test it reportedly carried out in space last week.

Japan has expressed concern, as have the US and Australia.

It is thought that the Chinese used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite that had been launched in 1999.

Correspondents say this is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years. China's foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.

While the technology is not new, it does underline the growing capabilities of China's armed forces, according to the BBC's Dan Griffiths in Beijing.

Space arms race?

Late on Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe confirmed an article in the magazine American Aviation Week and Space Technology, which reported that the test had taken place.

Test sparks space arms fears

The report said that a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite was destroyed by an anti-satellite system launched from or near China's Xichang Space Centre on 11 January.

The test is thought to have occurred at more than 537 miles (865km) above the Earth.

Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said: "I can't say anything about the reports. I really don't know."

But he added: "China advocates the peaceful use of space and opposes the weaponisation of space, and also opposes any form of arms race."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had asked China for an explanation and said nations "must use space peacefully".

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Beijing should have given Tokyo advance notice.

Mr Johndroe said the US "believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area".

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia did not want to see "some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space".

There are already growing international concerns about China's rising military power.

While Beijing keeps its defence spending a closely-guarded secret, analysts suggest that it has grown rapidly in recent years.

Space debris

The test, if confirmed, would mean that China could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.

It would be the first such test since the 1980s, when both the US and the Soviet Union destroyed satellites in space.


These tests were halted over concerns that the debris they produced could harm civilian and military satellite operations.

The same concerns have been raised about this latest reported test.

American Aviation Week and Space Technology said the move could have left "considerable space debris in an orbit used by many different satellites".

While the US may be unhappy about China's actions, the Washington administration has recently opposed international calls to end such tests.

It revised US space policy last October to state that Washington had the right to freedom of action in space, and the US is known to be researching such "satellite-killing" weapons itself.

In all honesty I'm a bit worried but not that worried. China has ambitions of being a super power and countering US power in the world. This move is aimed at countering the US's current superiority in spy sats and other space borne assets. It was done like this as a statement but not as provokation. China wants to be sure the US is paying attention and knows that they're neutralizing traditonal US advantages. I don't believe this is a led up to war, if it was it would be done without letting anyone know. Rather this is to ensure that the temption of US leaders to start an armed conflict with them remains... low.

[Hotfoot]

What I find amusing most of all about this is that it follows the US snubbing virtually every other major nation in the world in an agreement to ban such testing. Since the US effectively told everyone else to fuck off, China replied in kind.

[Destructionator XV]

I am not a fan of this at all. There are bigger things to worry about with space weapons testing than who is the big boy on the ground. The destruction of a satellite could potentially spread fast moving debris, which may impact other satellites and alter their orbits, which will impact other ones, and so on.

Worse case scenario, all current space infrastructure - weather, observation, communication - everything, destroyed, and the orbital debris field makes space travel too dangerous to risk, and any future satellites could not go up due to having a high chance of still being destroyed by the debris. We'd be grounded forever.

There is a reason NASA carefully plots old satellites to come to the ground instead of leaving them up there. Blowing stuff up is not a good plan, especially now since there are many more satellites than were up there when us and the USSR realized the danger.

My view on this is rather extreme, but the stakes are high. If they do not stop these space explosions, we should go Shep Solution (tm) on them. Not only do these weapons threaten the future of the US, it will cause serious damage to the world economy, and most importantly, will ultimately doom humanity itself. It needs to be stopped, now, one way or another.

[SirNitram]

China wants a ban on space weapons. This is obvious: They lack the finances to deploy enough of these without neglecting their conventional forces. But the US has several hundred sats, and China has less than 100. It sends a powerful message.

Ban these weapons, or discover you have everything to lose by letting them exist.

It'll remove a whole theatre from threatening China.

[Stofsk]

The less Alexander Downer speaks, the better I'd feel.

Australia doesn't want to see a space race fueled by China's ambitions? And what, pray tell, can Australia do to stop them? Sweet fuck all. Cut resource exports to the PRC? Congratulations, you've just shit on our economy. Maybe if Australia had taken the step to become a nuclear power thirty years ago we'd have more muscle, but we didn't, so we don't, and this government would sooner sell out it's own citizens to other countries with the death penalty than fuck with China in any meaningful way.

The guy just bugs me.