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Japan, Britain join concern over Chinese missile test
2007-01-19
Beijing insisted on Friday it was opposed to an arms race in space after Japan and Britain joined a chorus of concern over a satellite-killing missile test by China -- the first known experiment of its type in more than 20 years. The United States says China used a ground-based ballistic missile to shoot apart an aging weather satellite on January 11, scattering dangerous debris that could damage other satellites and raising risks of escalating military rivalry in outer space. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman refused to confirm or deny the incident, but said Beijing wanted no arms race in space. "I can't say anything about the reports. I really don't know; I've only seen the foreign reports," Liu Jianchao told Reuters. "What I can say is that, as a matter of principle, China advocates the peaceful use of space and opposes the weaponization of space, and also opposes any form of arms race," he said. U.S. concerns were quickly echoed by Australia and Canada, and then on Friday by Japan, which has become increasingly concerned about its giant neighbor's rising military strength. "We are concerned about it firstly from the point of view of peaceful use of space and secondly from the safety perspective," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference. Tokyo is trying to mend fences broken by disputes with China over their wartime history, competition for resources and regional influence. But it has also called for more transparency from Beijing on its defense spending, which China announced last March would rise by 14.7 percent rise to $35.3 billion. Britain added its voice to the alarm over China's reported move, with Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman telling reporters "we have concerns about the impact of debris in space and we've expressed that concern." The last U.S. anti-satellite test took place in 1985. Washington then halted such Cold War-era testing, concerned that debris could harm civilian and military satellite operations. Blair's spokesman said Britain did not believe the China's test had contravened international law, but it was concerned by the lack of consultation. The test was "inconsistent with the spirit of China's statement to the U.N. and other bodies on the military use of space," he added. CHINESE PEACE PLEDGE Tokyo has asked the Chinese government for confirmation that the satellite-killing missile test took place and for an explanation of what China's intentions were, Shiozaki said. "When we passed on the message, the Chinese side said they would take Japan's concerns into account and that they want to maintain the peaceful use of space," a Japanese foreign ministry official said. According to David Wright of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists, the satellite pulverized by China could have broken into nearly 40,000 fragments from 1 cm to 10 cm -- or up to 4 inches -- roughly half of which would stay in orbit for more than a decade. The United States has been researching satellite-killers of its own, experimenting with lasers on the ground that could disable, disrupt and destroy spacecraft. Marco Caceres, a space expert at the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia, said China's test could bolster a host of costly military space programs, almost all of which are over budget and behind schedule. (Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Katherine Baldwin in London and Lindsay Beck in Beijing)
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