A leading Chinese tabloid slammed the US yesterday for "traditional Cold War thinking" after the US Air Force conducted a space war game with China as the enemy.
The Global Times, a tabloid published by the Communist Party's official People's Daily, said the space war game conducted last month in Colorado would pave the way for the US National Missile Defense (NMD) plan China has vehemently opposed.
The Washington Post reported last month that the secretive, five-day game, aimed at finding out how to defend US satellites and destroy those of a potential enemy, was held under a scenario of conflict between the US and China in 2017.
The war game was conducted with country "Red" massing its forces for a possible attack on its small neighbor, "Brown," which then asked "Blue" for help, the Post said.
It quoted participants as saying Red referred to China and Blue meant the US, while the identity of Brown was not mentioned.
Both sides used simulated cyberattacks to disable each other's mainframe computers and satellites, with the Chinese side also trying to buy up all the commercial satellites it could find to deny their use by the Pentagon, the report said.
The Global Times said the Brown team in the war games was "China's Taiwan province."
The newspaper said the exercise and the George W. Bush administration's plans to pursue NMD showed that "some people in the US are unwilling to discard traditional Cold War thinking."
China has steadfastly opposed the NMD system, fearing that even a limited US missile shield would neutralize its modest strategic arsenal.
It does not accept US explanations that the missile shield is designed to protect the US from missile attack by hostile states, including Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
"Any clear-eyed person can see that America's NMD will be a spear pointed at China and Russia," the tabloid said.
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