Japan unveiled the space defence guidelines in Tokyo on Monday. Its defence ministry cited Chinese and Russian development of military capabilities in space as a reason it was seeking to boost defence in space and cooperation with the United States and other allies.
In response, China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said that in space, Japan, the US and other Western countries continued “expanding military cooperation and used ‘defence’ as a pretext to develop and deploy space weapons”.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun says defence is being used “as a pretext to develop and deploy space weapons”. Photo: dpa
“These measures threaten the security and stability of outer space and trigger the concerns of neighbouring countries about a revival of militarism,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular press conference in Beijing.
Japan’s guidelines state that China and Russia are actively developing technologies to jam or neutralise other countries’ satellites, such as so-called killer satellites, in-orbit rendezvous and proximity operations, and direct ascent anti-satellite missiles.
The guidelines say China has significantly increased its network of military satellites in recent years and that it has built constellations for monitoring, tracking and communication with targets. They say those satellites will support long-range precision strikes and rapidly improve the Chinese military’s command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
“To ensure their military superiority, some states, including China and Russia, are actively developing technologies to disrupt and disable other countries’ satellites … investing in improving capabilities, turning space into a growing combat domain and increasing threats and risks in outer space,” the guidelines say.
It comes as Japan and the US have stepped up cooperation on space-based surveillance and intelligence sharing. That includes the US forces in Japan setting up a space command at its Yokota air base in December.
