China slams US call to ban anti-satellite missile tests as 'fake arms control'

South China Morning Post
Wed, August 23, 2023 

Beijing on Wednesday accused a US proposal to ban anti-satellite weapons testing in space of promoting "fake arms control" and "real military expansion".

In a working paper submitted to the United Nations last week, the European Union said it planned to join a US proposal to prohibit the destructive testing of direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles (ASAT). The endorsement by the 27 EU member nations - most of them Nato allies - brings the total number of supporting countries to 35.

The EU statement comes ahead of a meeting by a UN working group on reducing space threats in Geneva next week to discuss on-orbit safety.

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The US proposal is opposed by China and Russia - both permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US, China, Russia and India have conducted the type of weapons tests that the proposal seeks to ban.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Wednesday that the US commitment was deceptive since it "sets no substantial limit to US military forces in outer space", and Washington had already carried out enough direct-ascent missile tests and developed other types of anti-satellite weapons.

Wang said Washington's purpose was to "maintain and enlarge its unilateral military superiority by means of multilateral commitments" and "achieve real military expansion under the guise of false arms control".

The EU said it was concerned the use of destructive ASAT might have "widespread and irreversible impacts on the outer space environment".

The EU said its commitment to supporting the ban was an "urgent and initial measure aimed at preventing damage to the outer space environment, while also contributing to the development of further measures for the prevention of an arms race in outer space".

Wang blamed the worsening security environment and intensifying space arms race on US attempts to seek dominance, rather than a specific type of weapons test.

"The US has publicly declared space to be a frontier of war, vigorously developed military forces for space, built a space military alliance and provoked confrontation among the major powers," Wang said.

The proposed ban has been promoted by the administration of US President Joe Biden. US Vice-President Kamala Harris last year announced that Washington would unilaterally end such tests and was planning to introduce a resolution to the UN.

Last December, the UN General Assembly approved a US-sponsored non-binding moratorium on destructive anti-satellite missiles, with 155 countries supporting the motion. China, Russia and seven other countries objected to the move, while India and eight other countries abstained.

In a statement on its commitment to stopping the tests, the White House mentioned a 2007 test by China, along with a similar one by Russia in November 2021, as examples of "one of the most pressing threats to the security and sustainability of space".

China has argued that the US commitment did not address the real security threats in outer space, and the ultimate solution should be a legally binding total prohibition on the deployment of weapons in space, the use of force and the threat of force against space objects.

"We hope that the countries concerned would ... abandon the Cold War mentality, stop making and implementing offensive military policies in outer space, and return to the right track of negotiating legal instruments for arms control," Wang said.

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