China’s military blasts US call to ban anti-satellite missile tests

Name: US Vice-President Kamala Harris addresses China threat as she kick-starts her Asia tour
Uploaded: 2022-10-01T12:00:10.000Z
Duration: 3 min 26 s
Description: US Vice-President Kamala Harris addresses China threat as she kick-starts her Asia tour

PLA Daily says American plan to introduce UN resolution against testing ‘conceals evil intention’

Washington has other ways of taking down enemy satellites and is trying to fix its advantage over rivals, according to commentary

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US Vice-President Kamala Harris announced a plan last month to introduce a UN resolution banning anti-satellite missile tests that create space debris. Photo: TNS

Liu Zhenin Beijing

Published: 8:00pm, 1 Oct 2022

The United States’ unilateral call to end direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests “conceals evil intention” and aims to “weaken others”, the Chinese military said.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris announced a plan last month to introduce a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly to ban destructive anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) tests, which create space debris that remains in orbit. In April, Harris announced that the US would not conduct destructive direct-ascent ASAT tests.

China, Russia and India are the only other countries that have conducted such tests.

In a statement on its commitment to stopping the tests, the White House mentioned a 2007 test by China, along with a similar one by Russia in November 2021, as examples of “one of the most pressing threats to the security and sustainability of space”.

Explaining the draft resolution to a UN working group on space threats, Mallory Stewart, US assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance, said refraining from the ASAT tests would “enhance international peace and security and is a first step towards preventing conflict from occurring in outer space”.

The Chinese military on Wednesday said the American proposal would “strengthen themselves and weaken others” because the US military had already developed enough ASAT capability that no more testing was needed.

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US Vice-President Kamala Harris addresses China threat as she kick-starts her Asia tour

Chinese military newspaper The PLA Daily said in a video commentary that the US started destructive ASAT tests and experiments in 1959, causing serious damage to the space environment. It said the US had conducted more tests than any other country, and its tests were the earliest and most comprehensive.

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