QVM Group

Investment Implications of China's Satellite Killer

Extracts from Business Week today (Jan 23)

Until recently, only Russia was thought to have any meaningful capabilities in this arena, but China has made a concerted effort to build up its own anti-satellite technology since the early 1990s. The Chinese military has closely studied the U.S. military campaigns in the 1991 Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and the Iraq War since 2003, and is investing heavily in anti-satellite weaponry, ground-based laser systems, and more elusive missile technology. Some think China will soon have the ability to attack critical juncture points in U.S. satellite-linked battlefield communications systems.

The Pentagon, in its 2006 annual report to Congress on China's military power, concludes, "China has the greatest potential to compete militarily with the U.S. and to field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages."

Investment Implications of China's Satellite Killer

SOME EXTRACTS FOR CBC WEBSITE AND INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Japan, South Korea, Australia, Britain and the U.S. all expressed concern about the test, saying it could lead to increasing militarization of outer space. Japan and the U.S, in particular, asked Bejing to respond.

The Chinese satellite was about the same distance from Earth as U.S. spy satellites, prompting some analysts to suggest that the test represented a potential threat to America, the Associated Press reported.

The U.S. has been able to knock out satellites with missiles since the mid-1980s, the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists in the U.S. said.

The only U.S. test was conducted on Oct. 13, 1985. Later that year, the U.S. government implemented a ban on testing anti-satellite weapons.

ndependent experts on the Chinese military said that China has sought a workable antisatellite weapon since the 1980s. It has experimented with using lasers and kinetic force, such as missiles or other satellites, to disable or destroy satellites in orbit.

One reason is that the United States military depends heavily on satellites for missile guidance, navigation and communications, and any widespread damage to that infrastructure would hamper military action overseas.

China has long feared that the United States might intervene in the event of a military conflict with Taiwan, and it has invested heavily in new weapons that experts say are geared toward giving it the power to attack Taiwan while keeping American forces at bay.

But others said China's intentions in conducting this test may have been more diplomatic in nature, designed to pressure the United States to negotiate a treaty to ban weapons in space. Russia and China have pressed for such a treaty, but the Bush administration has declined to participate in such talks.

China has rapidly become the world's third major space power, after Russia and the United States. In 2003, a Chinese astronaut circled the earth in a space vehicle. China also plans to send a robot to the moon by 2017.

Investment Implications of China's Satellite Killer

As a citizen, I hope you are right.