China presents possible space and tech threats, US says
17:32 04 March 2008 by New Scientist and Reuters
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China is developing weapons that would disable its enemies' space technology such as satellites in a conflict, the Pentagon said in a report released on Monday.
The annual report to the US Congress on Chinese military power also said "numerous" intrusions into computer networks around the world, including some owned by the US government, in the past year seem to have originated in China.
Looking at the prospect of more conventional warfare, the report said the situation in the Taiwan Strait was stable but the balance of forces continued to shift in China's favour as Taiwan had reduced defence spending in recent years.
Beijing usually criticises the Pentagon report, saying it unfairly portrays China as a military threat when it is committed to a "peaceful rise" as its economic power grows.
David Sedney, a top Pentagon China specialist, said there was no call for US alarm over China but repeated a frequent US complaint that Beijing has not made clear the reasons for its rapid military modernisation and spending growth.
"I think the biggest thing for people to be concerned about really is the fact that we don't have that kind of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions," said Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia. "That leads to uncertainty," he said, briefing journalists at the Pentagon on the latest report.
Jammers and lasers
Sedney said recent US-China defence talks had been "surprisingly successful," yielding agreements to establish a defence hotline and a dialogue on nuclear strategy and to hold talks on each country's reports on the other's military power.
But he said China's activities in both space and cyberspace were areas of concern.
The report said: "China is developing a multi-dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict."
The report said the Chinese People's Liberation Army had developed weapons and jammers to prevent an enemy using space-based systems such as satellites.
"The PLA is also exploring satellite jammers, kinetic energy weapons, high-powered lasers, high-powered microwave weapons, particle beam weapons, and electromagnetic pulse weapons for counterspace application," it said.
US officials have also repeatedly expressed concern about China's shootdown of one of its defunct weather satellites in a test in January 2007.
Network attacks
"We continue to ask the Chinese to sit down and talk to us about that test and they haven't," Sedney said.
The US blew apart a defunct satellite of its own with a missile from a Navy ship in February. The Pentagon said that was done purely to prevent potential harm to people.
Under the heading "Cyberwarfare Capabilities," the report stated that intrusions apparently from China into computer networks used "many of the skills and capabilities that would also be required for computer network attack."
It said it was not clear if the intrusions were carried out or backed by the Chinese military but "developing capabilities for cyberwarfare is consistent with authoritative PLA writings on this subject."
In March 2007, China announced a 17.8% rise in military spending to 350.92 billion yuan, or about $45 billion, for 2007 - the latest in a string of double-digit increases. The Pentagon report said the true figure could be between $97 billion and $139 billion.
By contrast, the Bush administration in February requested $515.4 billion for the Pentagon in the next US fiscal year. That figure does not include extra spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or nuclear weapons programs run by the Department of Energy.
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read all 6 comments Comments 1 | 2
So What?
Wed Mar 05 09:48:14 GMT 2008 by Gazza
"China is developing weapons that would disable its enemies' space technology such as satellites in a conflict"
This is supposed to be a concern?
Replace "China" with "USA". Is this still a concern, or is this yet another case of Pentagon hypocracy where double standards prevail.
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So What?
Wed Mar 05 14:25:46 GMT 2008 by Shane
Amen
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So What?
Wed Mar 05 15:25:48 GMT 2008 by Lee
Shushhh!
Did you know that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and that Iran is developing nuclear weapons’?
Now china is developing ray guns.
Let me think!
Where have we heard all this before?
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a proposal by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983[1] to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction (MAD).
Though it was never fully developed or deployed, the research and technologies of SDI paved the way for some anti-ballistic missile systems of today. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative. It gained the popular name Star Wars after the 1977 movie by George Lucas. Under the administration of President Bill Clinton in 1993, its name was changed to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) and its emphasis was shifted from national missile defense to theater missile defense; from global to regional coverage. BMDO was renamed to the Missile Defense Agency in 2002. This article covers defense efforts under the SDIO.
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China Building Particle Beam Weapons
Thu Mar 06 04:10:41 GMT 2008 by Jobe Hinnid
It seems totally bizarre that America is now awake to the Chinese building EMP weapsons and Tesla Howitzers when their arch-enemy Russia has been doing so since the early 50's. I don't understand how US intelligence could have so much data on China and not know that the Ruskies were the one's who sunk the USS Thresher!?! In fact, all attempts to warn the US government about Russian particle beam weapons over the past 30-40 years has fallen on deaf ears.
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The Imagined Threat From China
Fri Mar 14 11:34:43 GMT 2008 by S. Tevik
Why would China have to defend its military development? What large nation isn't regularly upgrading its military? It seems to me that China is doing a very smart move, as it shouldn't be making nuclear weapons like the rest of the world, but rather take out the systems that control them.
It's for defence. I'm not very happy about the civil atrocities commited by chinese government against its own people, but they are in their right to develop systems to defend themselves.
Besides, the USA should focus more on its own people's welfare and right the wrongs in their own country, and seriously fight the threat to science and knowledge that is religious ignorance of these.
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