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Analysis: China Ups Ante in Space

Council on Foreign Relations

January 19, 2007
Prepared by: Joanna Klonsky, Michael Moran

News of China’s successful satellite-killing missile test (BBC) on January 11 raises new questions for the United States with regard to its national space policy. A Chinese ground-based ballistic missile shattered an eight-year-old Chinese weather satellite slated to be retired, proving China can play with the big boys in space. It also caused U.S., British and Japanese officials to express concern that China may now be capable of targeting foreign spy satellites and risking a space arms race. Others, however, speculate that China conducted the first space weapons test in two decades to compel the U.S. to negotiate (NYT) a treaty forbidding such weapons. The United States has historically vetoed Russian and Chinese proposals for such a policy on the grounds that it would violate American “freedom of action” (Space.com) in space.

While news of China's test, first broken by an industry magazine, Aviation Week & Space Technology, stunned officials, it hardly represents a bolt from the blue. A report in October alleged China had “dazzled” (Defense News) a U.S. satellite with a ground based laser—that is, painted the satellite with the laser in a test of its ability to blind the U.S. military in times of crisis. The Pentagon avoided specifics about the report, but soon afterward the Bush administration released an unclassified version of its new space policy, which goes far beyond previous policies in asserting America’s right to respond forcefully to such threats. Bill Martel, a space policy expert at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, tells CFR.org in this podcast that the new space policy “sounds like a precursor to the weaponization of space.” Supporters readily concede the point. “Space supremacy is now the official policy of the U.S. government,” writes Michael Goldfarb in the Weekly Standard.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.