China’s militarisation and weaponisation of space
Hindustan TimesSpace has been weaponised for a long time now by all space-faring nations. The Sino-Russian proposal of Prevention of Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and Threat, the European Space Agency’s ‘Code’, as well as the latest US effort, the Artemis Accords, have not progressed much either. Apart from prosperity, the Chinese national objective also emphasises ‘war-fighting and winning.’ Space increasingly plays a pivotal role in its national security strategy. In China’s assessment, the overwhelming space capabilities of the US gives it an undue advantage and that needs to be neutralised before it can re-take lost territories within the First Island Chain and dominate the Second Island Chain and beyond into the Pacific. Robotic arms can be used for mission extension of low-fuel satellites as Intelsat demonstrated in c. 2020 or space debris removal as China’s ShiJian-21 satellite demonstrated in January 2022 when it grabbed a defunct BeiDou navigation satellite in Geostationary Earth Orbit and placed it in a graveyard orbit far above, thus acting as a ‘space tug’.
History of this topic
US military wants its money fix: China Daily editorial
China Daily
America, China and Russia are locked in a new struggle over space
Live Mint
US general warns China biggest threat in space
Firstpost
Russia and China could ‘threaten all satellites’ by 2030, Pentagon report says
The Independent
Space: The new frontier for US-China rivalry
Al Jazeera
China warns US against 'weaponising' space
Daily Mail
Why the United States needs to work with China in space
BBC
China's growing space-related capabilities worries US
Firstpost
China to develop space military capabilities
The Hindu
China 'against space arm race'
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