Posted on 01/19/2007 6:05:32 AM PST by Rb ver. 2.0
Britain has joined the US, Japan and Australia's condemnation of China after the communist country destroyed a satellite in space using a ballistic missile.
The British embassy in Beijing said it had raised the test, the first of its kind for 20 years, with the Chinese foreign ministry noting that the Government believed it was “inconsistent” with China’s opposition to the development of space weapons.
A spokesman refused to elaborate on the form the protest took or on the Chinese government’s response.
Later, a Downing Street spokesman said: "We are concerned about the impact of debris in space and we expressed that concern.
"We don't believe that this does contravene international law
"What we are concerned about however is lack of consultation and we believe that this development of this technology and the manner in which this test was conducted is inconsistent with the spirit of China's statements to the UN and other bodies on the military use of space."
The Chinese authorities have not confirmed a US report that it blew up one of its own aged weather satellites last Thursday with a ballistic missile fired from the Xichang space centre in Sichuan province.
There is stony silence on the subject in the Chinese media today as concern grows in the US and in the region about the prospect of an arms race in space.
If the test is confirmed, China will become the third country after the United States and the former Soviet Union to shoot down an object in space, indicating the Asian power could target satellites operated by other nations.
The United States, Japan, Australia and a host of other countries voiced concern on Friday .
Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, said his government had asked China for confirmation, and for an explanation of what its intentions were.
“We are concerned about it firstly from the point of view of peaceful use of space, and secondly from the safety perspective,” Mr Shiozaki said.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the American National Security Council, said the US “believes China’s development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area”.
Alexander Downer, Australia's foreign minister, said his country did not want to see “some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space”.
Taro Aso, the Japanese foreign minister, said the Chinese had sought to reassure Japan its intentions in space were of no threat to anyone.
“China consistently uses space only for peaceful purposes,” Mr Aso quoted the Chinese foreign ministry as saying.
The comments fit with the ruling Communist Party’s mantra in recent years that the nation’s rise as a world superpower should not be feared.
China joined the exclusive club of top space nations in 2003 when it sent up its first manned mission, joining the United States and Russia.
China spends 500 million dollars a year on its space programmes, according to official figures, while NASA’s proposed budget for 2007 is nearly 17 billion dollars.
But the United States has consistently deflected Chinese advances for closer cooperation on the two nations’ space programmes because of concerns about the involvement of China’s military.
A Chinese government defence paper released last month said that its defence expenditure had grown by more than 15 percent every year since 1990.
It was an episode in "Eye of Cat."
"Episode" -- TV series?
Part of a novel. One of a number of scenes, presented sequentially, sort of ... Zelazny experimented with chronology!
H. I missed that one, clearly.
I've just been focusing on the "big paper" for the past several days. That's about as wild as I get.
I'll be in the shower, so let me know if anything happens.
I'm sure you had more to go through in your comments page than I did, but it still can build up after a while.
Thanks! :-)
Welcome to the Undead Thread. Sit back, relax, and don't worry about the unusual noises coming from the basement.
The moose stopped by earlier and the fridge is fully stocked with cheese.
It sure can! So how's the Tax Table?
Howya!
I was out in the garden clearing out dead plants and early weeds. It looks like it's time to get some more bark mulch out, before the weeds really get going - and also before the rosebushes make it too hard to get around.
Wher'ed that map of the castle go, anyway?
It looks like spring around here too. After the Ash Wednesday service got out I noted the daffodils are up already.
Well, as long as those unusual noises don't mean there's something else broken that I need to fix. :-/
The Tax Table is okay. I've been glued to it for the past several days trying to get a lot of work finished. I still have a lot more to do, though.
We have a few crocuses blooming. The little girls picked most of them as soon as they saw them, but there are some holding out under one of the rosebushes :-).
I have daffodils and tulips coming up, but no flowers yet.
Where I grew up we had crocuses in the lawn; they'd come up while the snow was still around.
I didn't want TChris to run away screaming...
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