China's apparently successful destruction of a satellite in space shows its determination to be a global power and is set to leave lasting jitters in the US and Asia, analysts said.
The weapons test, which was not confirmed by China, would be the world's first since 1985 when Cold War superpowers Washington and Moscow agreed to suspend "Star Wars" maneuvers that blew up satellites.
The US relies on spy satellites for intelligence, including about China's expanding military, and had refused previous calls for a permanent ban on such tests in space.
The test, which was reported by US officials, would show that spy satellites "are now potentially vulnerable to Chinese destruction," said Lance Gatling, an aerospace consultant based in Tokyo.
"Without announcing it, they are making a clear statement that they intend to pursue such a program at their convenience and they're willing to take some significant heat to do so," he said.
"If you think of the Beijing Olympics and trade talks and everything that's coming up, it's not unprovocative," he added.
The US led criticism of the test, which also triggered concern in Japan and India, Asia's two other main space powers, which have often had tense relations with China.
But Zhu Feng (
"Beijing now is rising so it's also natural, I think, for Beijing to try to make some of the economic achievements spill over to the military," he said.
China is "still very much weaker than the US and Russia in such military capabilities, so it's kind of a strategy of catch-up where it would not like to be lagging so far behind," he said.
"We are also a power, we also have very big, legitimate concerns in the security field. So you cannot say, `OK, Beijing is a rising power [but] Beijing has no right to advance when it's security is concerned,'" he added.
The Chinese government has not commented, but has said that its space program is not a threat.
The US, however, has voiced concern not only over the political implications of the test but also about debris hitting satellites or the International Space Station.
Gatling estimated that debris from the destroyed weather satellite was traveling at some 27,000kph and would stay in space for three to five years.
He said Japan, European nations and possibly India had the know-how to carry out similar tests, which he described at a technical level as the "outer space equivalent of a car bomb."
"It raises the stakes in what some people see as a kind of inevitable progress toward a militarization of space," he said.
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