South China Morning Post
October 6, 1999
Spy Satellites Said To Track US Warships
By Agence France-Presse
The mainland has 17 spy satellites that continuously monitor the movements of the US military and which could also be used to guide a "saturated" missile attack on American and Taiwan warships, reports said.
"If the US seeks to intervene militarily into the internal affairs of China and Taiwan, they will find that the entirety of their global movements are seen by Chinese spy satellites," the Sichuan Youth Daily said.
Beijing had the capability to rapidly determine the number and location of US aircraft carriers should Washington decide to send its ships to the region as it did during the 1996 crisis, military expert Zhou Guanwu told the paper.
"China has a lot of anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles that can be guided by satellites and adjusted for a saturated attack in local waters," the paper said. "Enemy troops, either American or Taiwanese, will have difficulty withstanding this."
Mr Zhou said the mainland, like the US, had the capability to destroy satellites' optical technology with lasers.
At the end of 1997, Beijing had 40 domestic-made satellites in orbit, of which 17 were spy satellites, the newspaper said.
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