A brand new US intelligence report portraying Moscow and Beijing as attempting to convey warfare into the heavens has drawn the ire of China, which insists that space is just not Washington’s “private property.”
I wish to make it clear that outer space belongs to all mankind. It is just not completely owned by anybody nation and particularly not the personal property of the US,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, referring to the newest paper by the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).
Hua slammed the “unwarranted and utterly baseless comments” within the DIA report, saying China stands for the peaceable use of space and opposes its militarization.
“For many years,” the spokeswoman said, “China, Russia and different international locations have been working onerous and attempting to succeed in a world authorized instrument to basically stop the weaponization of or an arms race in outer space.”
The DIA report – which comes amid Donald Trump’s cosmic endeavors such because the institution of the Space Command – followers fears of US dominance being challenged in all places, together with space. Russia and China “view space as essential to fashionable warfare and look at counterspace capabilities as a method to cut back US and allied navy effectiveness,” it claims, noting that each international locations have accomplished a lot to spice up their capabilities.
“These capabilities present their militaries… with enhanced situational consciousness, enabling them to watch, observe, and goal US and allied forces,” the DIA says.
What it didn’t say, nonetheless, is {that a} host of senior US navy leaders have overtly mentioned the prospect of offensive weapons being delivered into Earth’s orbit. Former Pentagon chief James Mattis, as an example, mentioned in 2017 that the US must have offensive weapons in space “should someone decide to militarize it and go on the offensive.”