The Chinese Government has demanded this Tuesday that the United States “stop preparing for a war in outer space”, after Washington officially confirmed for the first time the deployment of “space control” weapons in orbit to “defend” the country against “hostile adversarial actions.”
“We ask the United States to stop expanding its military presence and preparing for a war in space,” said the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guo Jiakun, who requested Washington to “take concrete actions to maintain global strategic stability.”
Likewise, he highlighted that the Asian giant defends “a peaceful use of space” and argued that Beijing “works to maintain security in space”, according to the Chinese newspaper ‘Global Times’. “We oppose its militarization, transformation into a battlefield, or an arms race in space,” he concluded.
Guo’s words came hours after the United States Air Force Secretary, Troy Meink, confirmed the mentioned deployment and noted that Washington “is prepared to face evolving threat challenges, wherever they arise.”
“The United States now has space control weapons in orbit capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile actions from adversaries,” he emphasized, declining to provide details about these capabilities on the grounds that, while acknowledging the existence of this weaponry in orbit may be deterrent, “talking about the details of what is being done would not benefit that deterrence.”
For its part, a spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force stressed in statements to the ABC television network that “these capabilities can be used for offensive and defensive purposes.” “The United States has warned about the testing and deployment of Russian and Chinese weapons since 2007. As a result of their actions, there is no longer any doubt that space is a domain of warfare operations,” he added.
