China Urges US to Stop Space Weapons Buildup — SkimNews
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- China urged the United States to halt its military build-up in outer space, with foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun telling a regular press briefing on Tuesday that Beijing opposes the 'weaponization of outer space' and turning it into a war zone.
- US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink acknowledged on Monday that the United States has 'on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action' — the strongest Pentagon admission yet of US weapons in orbit, though Meink did not identify the specific systems.
- State-backed Global Times reported the disclosure exposed what it called Washington's pursuit of 'space hegemony' and risked fueling a global space arms race.
- Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping told the Global Times the acknowledgment marked a shift from protecting space assets and relying on ground-based counter-space systems toward directly deploying weapons in orbit, warning: 'If the U.S. continues down this path, other countries may be forced to respond.'
- State news agency Xinhua said in an analysis last week of a US orbital military exercise that Washington's push to weaponize this domain risked creating a 'security dilemma,' forcing other nations to strengthen counter-space capabilities the United States would then regard as new threats.
Why it matters: China is publicly framing the United States as the instigator of a space arms race after the Pentagon made its first explicit admission of orbital weapons, giving Beijing a concrete trigger to demand restraint. The 'security dilemma' formulation published by Xinhua a week before Meink's statement gives China a ready-made rhetorical framework to cast any future Chinese counter-space build-up as a defensive reaction to American action rather than an escalation.
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