China's new satellite-killing capability threatens US military supremacy in Asia, especially Washington's ability to swiftly come to Taiwan's defense, US experts say.
The US is Taiwan's security guarantor against any possible Chinese invasion. But the recent successful test of a Chinese satellite destruction missile raises the prospect of Beijing scuttling America's critical satellite network in a possible war.
"The prospect of losing a good chunk of our satellite coverage, our satellite network in space in a Taiwan combat scenario really does change the equation for American planners on how we approach the defense of Taiwan should it need it," said John Tkacik, a former US State Department expert on China.
Taiwan has several satellites up in orbit now, including two imaging ones used for intelligence and surveillance purposes.
If the Chinese pursued the satellites during hostilities, it could cause Washington to have second thoughts about getting involved.
"If especially the United States felt that its satellites were equally vulnerable, it's a disturbing new development," said Tkacik, the former chief of China analysis in the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research.
The US revealed last week that China had destroyed one of its own orbiting weather satellites earlier this month using a ballistic missile, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the US to shoot down an object in space.
The successful test -- the first such intercept in more than 20 years -- means China can theoretically shoot down spy satellites or other orbiters operated by other nations, sparking fears of a space-based arms race.
"There has been long a desire on China's part to try to have weapons to shoot down or at least interfere with American satellites which America depends upon in order to meet its defense commitment in Asia," former senior Pentagon official Dan Blumenthal said.
"So it very much puts in the minds of American planners, policy makers how to overcome this now more costly commitment," he said.
Blumenthal said that Taiwan would be a "central" issue of China's satellite-killing capability because the most likely flashpoint between Washington and Beijing is over Taiwan.
Stratfor, a US security and intelligence think tank, said Beijing's first attempts to control space would not be an effort to match US capabilities but "rather to become master of its own domain above East Asia."
"Facing the major competitor in all of space, China will tailor its offensive space capability specifically toward countering US dominance -- at least in part," it said.
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