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MND TO UNVEIL RESPONSE MEASURES AFTER CHINA'S ANTI-SATELLITE TEST

ROC Central News Agency

2007-01-22 22:06:47

    Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) Senior defense officials will expound on the military response to China's anti-satellite test and deployment of its advanced Jian-10 jet fighters at an air base approximately 500 kilometers from Taiwan, military sources said Monday.

    According to the sources, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) will hold a pre-Chinese New Year news conference in which officials from the ministry's intelligence, operations and training and standard development departments will elaborate on military response measures in face of China's intensified military buildup.

    U.S. authorities said last Friday that China conducted an anti-satellite test earlier this month in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile.

    The report has raised concerns in Asia and the United States about the rising militarization of space and prompted their governments to demand explanations from Beijing. Analysts said China's weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to U.S. defense systems.

    MND spokesman Wu Chi-fang said the military has full knowledge of China's anti-satellite test and has collected all relevant intelligence. He said China's development of anti-satellite missiles will not only aggravate its threat to Taiwan but will also pose a threat to the whole world.

    At to China's deployment of Jian-10 (or J-10) fighters, Wu said the military will soon release information concerning the impact of China's deployment of J-10 fighters.

    China's state-controlled TV station aired videos last month showing that batches of the J-10 fighters -- both single-seat J-10A and two-seat J-10B -- had entered operational service. Unconfirmed reports said the J-10 fighters are deployed in Zhejiang Province, one of the three Chinese coastal provinces along the Taiwan Strait.

(By Sofia Wu)

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