The Guardian 31 January, 2007
China’s missile test panics
US and subservient allies
The destruction of an old orbiting weather satellite by a ballistic rocket launched by China on January 11 may turn out to be an event as politically and militarily significant as the first explosion of a nuclear weapon by the former Soviet Union in 1949 and the launching of the first artificial satellite (Sputnik I), into orbit around the earth, also by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. This was followed by Sputnik II on November 3 of the same year. These events rocked the western world at the time. They had to come to terms with the fact that the technological achievements of the Soviet Union were as advanced as those of the United States and Britain. The US scrambled to put its first Explorer satellite into orbit on January 31, 1958 and later that year passed "Space legislation" resulting in the creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Today, the Chinese missile success shows that China has also mastered advanced space technology, not only for peaceful purposes, but to the point where it has the capability to defend itself if threatened by the United States or any other power.
The weather satellite that was the target of its test on January 11was at an altitude of around 850 kilometres, or more than half the distance between Sydney and Melbourne. The destruction of this weather satellite was carried out by what is called a "kinetic kill vehicle" carried by a ballistic missile.
Use of space
Space is designated as that distance beyond 160 kilometres from the earth’s surface. At present 130 states have space programs and there are many satellites in this region of space with many devoted to weather forecasting and imaging, ship and aircraft navigation, crop management, broadcasting, education and health programs, accessing (and listening to) communications by phone, email and fax, battlefield control, bombing, spying and much more.
However, only a small number of nations have the capacity to launch these satellites into their orbits and only the US, the Soviet Union and now China have the capacity to destroy such satellites in near space orbit. Many satellites have "stationary orbits", meaning that relative to the earth they remain stationary above the same spot on earth. To maintain their "stationary orbits" they have to be located at approximately 36,000 kilometres above the earth’s surface.
The Russian newspaper Pravda (not the Pravda formerly published by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) claims that the US tried twice in 1985 to destroy an orbital satellite but failed both times. Trying to save face, NASA announced the cancellation of the programs giving the reason that the amount of debris caused by destroying a satellite could damage other space objects.
The magazine Aviation Week and Space Technology reported (January 22, 2007) that China is also developing a laser capability and last year illuminated a US reconnaissance satellite with a laser that did no harm. "But it made us think", said Donald Kerr, director of the US National Reconnaissance Office at the time. However, the US had such a device as long as 20 years ago.
Media howls of rage
Although these earlier tests by the US passed without a mention in the mass media, the successful test by the People’s Republic of China has produced howls of rage by the US, and its subservient allies, Australia, Canada and Japan in particular. The media claims to be speaking on behalf of "world opinion" although other and much larger countries do not seem to have been so concerned.
The US, voicing its usual arrogant response, said that the White House warned China that its actions would carry ramifications. "We are concerned about it, and we’ve made it known", said a White House spokesman, Tony Snow.
Robert Joseph, the State Department’s point man for arms control and international security, said on December 13, "No nation, no non-state actor, should be under the illusion that the United States will tolerate a denial of our right to the use of space for peaceful purposes".
Alexander Downer, taking an equally arrogant stand, went so far as to call in the PRC Ambassador in Canberra to demand an "explanation".
Their real concern however, is the fact that China, which has already carried out an extensive and peaceful space program, has shown by this successful test, that the spy satellites and other vehicles which are part of US war preparations are now vulnerable. The fact that the test has been carried out as the US is threatening to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s nuclear facilities, may act as something of a warning signal to Bush, Cheney and his war-mad administration.
In an attempt to influence those genuinely concerned about the environment, much is being made of the space debris issue. But this comes from those responsible for the widespread use of depleted uranium in Iraq and elsewhere and for the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam during the US-led war on that country which caused and continues to cause tens of thousands of Vietnamese children to be born with horrific deformities.
In the commentaries, absolutely nothing is being said about the efforts of Russia, China and a number of other countries who, in 2002 and again in 2005, submitted to the UN Disarmament Conference proposals for discussion of a treaty to prohibit the use of space for any military purpose. Of all the more than 190 states which make up the United Nations, only the US has refused to even discuss such a treaty just as it has — along with Australia — refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocols as a first step towards real efforts to control carbon emissions and the serious dangers arising from climate change.