World media condemn China's satellite shooting

LONDON: Newspapers around the world on Saturday expressed concern after China shot down a satellite, urging new efforts to prevent an arms race in space.

The London Times said the action, reported by US officials but not confirmed by China, was an eerie reminder of the Cold War stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union.

"In a power play reminiscent of the Cold War, it has unilaterally kicked aside a well-established international policy of voluntary restraint," The Times editorial said.

"Instead of gloating, Beijing should move rapidly to repair the damage, first by providing full details of the test. It should then rejoin the consensus against testing in space."

The New York Times said Washington should react by working to ban the use of weapons on space.

"Surely it would make military and diplomatic sense to ... seek to ban all tests and any use of anti-satellite weapons," its editorial argued.

"Some experts suggest that China's latest test is intended to prod the United States to join serious negotiations.

"The way to counter China or any other potentially belligerent space power is through an arms control treaty, not a new arms race in space."

Washington said China fired a missile to destroy an orbiting weather satellite last week, making it the third country after the former Soviet Union and the United States to shoot down an object in space.

The missile was reportedly fired from the Xichang space center in central Sichuan province on January 11 and destroyed a Chinese weather satellite launched in 1999.

If confirmed, the test would mean China could now theoretically shoot down spy satellites operated by other nations.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post speculated that China was trying to force the United States into talks on an arms treaty.

"Washington says Beijing's surprise test is not consistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space field," the Post said.

"More convincing perhaps is the assessment by some experts that China could be showing off its space capabilities to bring the US to the negotiating table," it added.

However, London's Financial Times worried that the test could harden attitudes in Washington.

"The Chinese test may or may not lead to a new arms race in space. But it will certainly strengthen the hand of hawks in Washington who regard Chinese power as a strategic threat to the US," it said.

The Australian warned that China may be preparing for an invasion of US ally Taiwan, which it regards as part of its territory.

" ... most of China's massive military build-up in recent years has had two things in mind -- Taiwan and the US," foreign affairs editor Greg Sheridan said in a comment piece.

"Whatever anyone says about the demilitarisation of space, whatever protocols are signed, if there is ever, God forbid, a conflict between two technically proficient big powers like the US and China, it will be fearsomely destructive and satellites will be among the first targets," he added.

The Taipei Times slammed Beijing's behaviour as "irresponsible". "In the wake of the North Korean nuclear test, this missile test suggests that Beijing has, if anything, taken on Pyongyang as a role model," it said.

The Indian Express voiced worries over India's own space and military ambitions. "It threatens our own expanding civilian space assets, undermines the credibility of our nuclear deterrent, and exposes New Delhi's lack of a military space strategy,"  it said in an editorial.

"India can either respond with a robust military space effort in collaboration with the US or consign itself to the status of a second-rate power in Asia."