US fears after Chinese missile test
China has tested a long-range missile capable of intercepting
satellites, US intelligence sources have claimed.
By Tom Phillips, Shanghai and agencies
The Daily Telegraph
9:57AM BST 17 May 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10063455/US-fears-after-Chinese-missile-test.html
On Monday night local time a rocket was sent into space from a launch
centre in Sichuan province, southwest China. Beijing said the launch was
part of a scientific data-collecting mission.
But that version has now been called into question, with one anonymous
US defence source telling Reuters: "It was a ground-based missile that
we believe would be their first test of an interceptor that would be
designed to go after a satellite that's actually on orbit."
Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, declined
to comment on the claim at a cybersecurity conference organised by
Reuters but hinted at US anxiety over the launch.
"Any time you have a nation-state looking to have a more aggressive
posture in space, it's very concerning," he said.
China has rejected claims that the rocket launch was an aggressive
military development.
"The rocket was launched at 9pm on Monday from the Xichang Satellite
Launch Center in southwest China to investigate energy particles and
magnetic fields in the ionised stratum and near-Earth space," officials
from the National Space Science Center told state media.
"The experiment has reached expected objectives by allowing scientists
to obtain first-hand data regarding the space environment at different
altitudes," China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters: "I want to emphasise
that China has consistently advocated for the peaceful use of outer
space and opposes the weaponisation of outer space as well as an arms
race in outer space." The launch created confusion on the Chinese
internet, with micro-bloggers in parts of southwest and central China
noting the appearance of a bright, V-shaped object in the skies.
Online speculation over the causes prompted state media to publish
reports denying that the bloggers had seen "an alien UFO".
On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Monica Matoush,
said no objects had been placed into orbit by the launch.
"We tracked several objects during the flight but did not observe the
insertion of any objects into orbit and no objects associated with this
launch remain in space," the spokesperson told Reuters.
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