Friday, January 19, 2007

China's military ambitions in space

CHISAKI WATANABE, Associated Press Writer wrote today, "TOKYO - Britain, Japan and Australia joined the United States on Friday in voicing concern about the rising militarization of space after China successfully carried out a test of an anti-satellite weapon. But Russia expressed skepticism about the Jan. 11 test, in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a ballistic missile."

Is China posing a challenge to US supremacy in space? If we consider the timing of the test and the arms race competition, what message is China sending to US. What about China's message to countries like Taiwan, Japan and other smaller neighboring nations. Will a space weapons treaty be necessary in the future to ensure a safe space?

At a time when the US forces on ground are too stretched to take a strong action outside Iraq, North Korea recently tested a nuclear weapon and Iran is gearing up to become nuclear. China testing an ASAT missile is irresponsible because this delibrate effort not only shows the inability of the US to take a strong action, this encourages Iran and now possibly Jordan to become nuclear because US is lacking leverage in stopping them.

1 comment:

Vibhu said...

Well, the U.S. has a nice policy about satellite destruction. If another country destroys one of their satellites, they make take force against that country, and it's considered an act of war. Not that I like war...but there would be a better chance of a free Tibet with the U.S. having that leverage to make demands.