U.S. accuses China of developing space warfare

[Guest Always Red]

The US Pentagon submitted a report to Congress on Monday, detailing the Chinese Space Agency's focus on developing means for "space warfare".

 

The Pentagon claims that China has been "exploring" laser, microwave, particle beam and electromagnetic pulse weapons, and suggests that China has been "developing the ability to attack an adversary's space assets," and would be able to disable or destroy enemy satellites. Such an offensive could be used to "blind and deafen the enemy" prior to an attack, according to the study.

 

China has been a proponent of a treaty to ban space based weapons, however it is unlikely to be ratified in the near future and has little support from the current US government who have consistently been isolated in its opposition to General Assembly Resolutions on the prevention of an arms race in outer space. The US has criticized the Chinese research into ground-based anti-satellite weapons while claiming that the US has a right to space weaponry including orbital weapons platforms capable of destroying other satellites in space. Currently the United States DoD has an active research program in space weaponry, including armed satellites.

 

The Pentagon analysis was released the same day that Yang Baohua, head of the Academy of Space Technology, announced that testing of a new EVA spacesuit and airlock had been successfully completed. The two units are being developed for China's first intended spacewalk as part of Shenzhou 7, one of ten Chinese spacecraft being launched this year.

 

The move has caused aerospace analyst Jeff Foust to declare that "a full-fledged space race" has been gearing up between China and the United States.

 

In September, NASA administrator Mike Griffin caused waves when he suggested that China is more likely to put the next man on the moon than the United States, suggesting that "Americans will not like it," but that nothing could be done about it.

[Guest Jonathan P.]

China's Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) aspires to a more technology-intensive force appropriate to 21st century strategic realities, premised on the increased "informationalization" of warfare. It posits the need for major enhancements in "firepower, assault, mobility, protection, and information,’" all premised on "major breakthroughs’" in joint operations and inter-service integration. In the

ground forces, these will be geared toward "trans-regional mobility . . . airground integrated operations, long-distance maneuvers, rapid assaults, and special operations."

 

The PLA Navy will emphasize "gradual extension of the strategic depth for offshore defensive operations . . . and capabilities in integrated maritime operations and nuclear counterattacks."

 

The PLA AirForce will undertake a ‘‘transition from territorial air defense to both offensive and defensive operations," including ‘‘air strike, air and missile defense, early warning and reconnaissance and strategic projection."

 

The Second Artillery (i.e., the missile forces) will emphasize enhanced "capabilities in strategic deterrence and conventional strike," with Chinese nuclear doctrine premised on "a self-defensive nuclear strategy . . . and counter-attack in self-defense."

[Guest Xin Benjian]

The US Defense Department, or the Pentagon, has released its annual assessment of Chinese military power. On March 3, "the 2008 Military Power of the People's Republic of China" was delivered to the United States Congress by Pentagon, in which it again peddled the theory concerning China's military threat.

 

"The lack of transparency in China's military and security affairs poses risks to regional security," notes the Pentagon report, which has also viciously exaggerated the Chinese army's cyber and outer space operational capabilities.

 

Without any significant evidences, the report guesses that that hackings of computer networks in the US Defense Department and Federal Government in 2007 might come from China, infers or implies that the launch of Chang'e-1 was conducive for increasing its operational capacity in the outer space, and also alleges that the gap in the military strength across the Taiwan Strait has somewhat enlarged.

 

The keynote of the Pentagon report, however, is very difficult to gain a foothold. By citing "the lack of transparency in China's military," it has in fact turned a blind eye to substantial efforts China has made to raise its military transparency. China has promulgated main strategic ideas on its self-defense nuclear strategies and the development of its ground, naval and air forces, with a detailed account of the composition, growth ranges and reasons listed for the national defense spending and their principal uses in the six national defense white papers China it has released since 1995.

 

At the same time, China's armed forces have kept up exploring and expanding its exchanges and cooperation with armies of other countries. The Chinese navy has completd 29 overseas journeys of naval vessels or formations of vessels, which called at more than 30 countries from the mid 1980s. Moreover, since 2002, the Chinese army has held more than 20 joint military drills or exercises with over 20 countries, including Russia and India.

 

So, people are really at a loss what to say as the Pentagon report charges China with "posing risks to regional security." With China's positive coordinative efforts, a breakthrough progress was made regarding the Korea Peninsula Issue last year, and the process to defunct Yongbyon nuclear facilities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is drawing to a close; China has played a constructive role in negotiations with regard to Iran's nuclear enrichment program. In order to resolve the crisis of Darfur region in Sudan, China has not only sent its special representative for maneuvering and but dispatched its peacekeeping troops there. It is thus quite evident that China has played a vital, crucial role in stabilizing the regional situation and safeguarding the world peace.

 

The Pentagon report, nevertheless, plays up China's operational capability in the outer space while neglecting the United States' rejection in February 12 of a Sino-Russian draft treaty to ban the use of weapons in the outer space and downing of a spay satellite on February 20. The U.S. army commenced to develop the anti-satellite missiles three decades ago, back in 1978, and proceeded to begin deploying its new-type space-based weaponry system in 2004.

 

As for a growing gap of the military power across the Taiwan Strait, it poses merely a stereotype phrase, which has often been appearing or recurring in the Pentagon's annual reports on China's military power, with a purpose of merely finding the excuse for its continued arms sale to Taiwan.

 

China has embarken on the steps that have been taken by any normal countries to develop their military, acknowledged US National Intelligence Director Michael McConnel in his written testimony to Congress. In fact, some Americans would not be concerned with China's military threat provided they do away with their "amnesia" and look squarely and rationally that the Chinese government has increased its defense spending appropriately on the basis of the relatively sustained, stable growth of the national economy and a subsequent growth in the financial revenue.