Space arms race begins
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China has successfully tested a ballistic missile that knocked out one of its aging satellite. The United States and other countries have voiced concerns that it might set off an arms race in space and end peaceful space cooperation. Some experts believe that it was only a demonstration whose significance can only be judged over time.
US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said that on January 11 China launched a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile from or near the Xichang Space Center (Sichuan) against its aging Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, placed in orbit in 1999, about 865 km (537 miles) above the Earth
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".
Australia also protested. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his country did not want to see "some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space".
Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said his government was “concerned,” saying that he asked China for an explanation of “what its intentions were”.
Some experts are convinced that China has embarked on a long-range plan intended to establish its military superiority in Asia. Its military spending from 1990 to 2005 rose at an annual average rate of 9.6 per cent, after adjusting for inflation. And Beijing's military budget for last year was US$ 35.9 billion, up from US$ 31.3 billion in 2005, but US intelligence analysts estimate that overall military spending is at least twice as much.
Most of the money involved in the spending increases has gone into the navy, air force and the nuclear force. Earlier this month Beijing in fact showcased its latest Jian-10 fighter jet and reports indicate that it now has the necessary capabilities to build an aircraft carrier and new air-air interceptor missiles.
The capability demonstrated by China was no surprise to the Bush administration, which revised US national space policy in October to assert a right to deny space access to anyone hostile to US interests.
The issue of possible hostilities in space became more real in August 2006 when National Reconnaissance Office Director Donald M. Kerr said that a US satellite had been "painted," or illuminated, by a ground-based laser in China.
During the Cold War US President Ronald Reagan expressed his intention to build a defensive shield in space with laser technology that would intercept and destroy incoming missiles. But the “Star War” programme was abandoned in 1993.
Now there are fears that a new ‘Cold War’ might be in the making that would sideline international and commercial space cooperation.
Paradoxically, the Chinese test comes at a time when China itself is leading an effort in the United Nations to set up an international conference to address what many consider to be an imminent space arms race. The United States has been the one space-faring nation to oppose the idea, arguing that it isn't needed because there is no arms race in space.
The last US anti-satellite test took place in 1985. Washington then halted such Cold War-era testing, concerned by debris that could harm civilian and military satellite operations on which it increasingly relies for everything from pinpoint navigation to Internet access to automated teller machines.
What is more, many sensitive US communications satellites are in a much higher orbit around 35,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) and US officials believe that the recent test does not prove that China has the capability to disrupt those systems.
China in 2003 became the third country to send a person into space aboard its own rocket. The communist country, fuelled by the fastest-growing major economy, plans to send a robot to the moon to fetch lunar soil by 2017. (PB)
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