China’s growing space warfare capabilities pose a fundamental threat to Taiwan, a US expert on Chinese weapons systems said.
Rick Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Virginia, was commenting on a report on China’s progress in space technologies released on Monday by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
The report by the University of California Institute on Global Conflict describes China’s advancing space capabilities and was the subject of a news report in the Taipei Times yesterday.
Chinese military analysts believe that space-based information systems will be a deciding factor in future wars and space will be a dominant battlefield, the report said.
Fisher said that China now has the ability to target Taiwan’s satellites in low Earth orbits.
However, China’s fundamental space threat to the nation comes from its potential to delay or prevent the US and other countries from aiding Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, he said.
“By targeting key communication, surveillance and navigation satellites, China can make a US rescue mission far more difficult and costly to achieve,” Fisher said.
He said that space warfare capabilities could be useful in helping to achieve many Chinese objectives.
“China’s leadership understands that in order to ensure the success of its military endeavors on Earth, it has to control the high ground of space,” Fisher said.
“They also understand this pursuit does not end at low Earth orbit, but must continue to the moon and beyond,” he said.
“Chinese officials are already indicating that China’s projection to the moon and deep space will be dual use, or used to enhance the power of the People’s Liberation Army [PLA],” he said.
The report said that an earlier study established that China could image Taiwanese targets 35 times per day and that the PLA could use this capability to enable aircraft and missiles to pinpoint their fire, restrike targets or verify a target’s destruction.
According to the report, the Chinese Academy of Sciences operates satellite remote sensing data stations in Kashgar, Xinjiang; Beijing; and Sanya, Hainan.
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