China slams US military buildup in space

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a press conference in Beijing that the US had “announced the establishment of independent outer-space forces and continuously carried out war games in outer space.”

She cautioned the US that “these actions might gradually make the threat of the outer space weaponization a reality, turning it eventually into a battlefield.”

The US, she said, was constantly overstating what Washington calls a threat posed to the outer space by other countries, using it as a pretext to enhance its military presence there.

Earlier, the US Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) issued a report titled “Challenges to Security in Space,” describing China and Russia as the “real threats” to “US capabilities” in the outer space.

Tensions have been running high between the US and China over a number of issues, including bilateral trade as well as Washington’s meddling in Beijing’s territorial dispute with its neighbors.

The US sparked anger in China on Monday, when its guided-missile destroyers sailed close to the Nansha archipelago in the South China Sea, which has long been at the center of a territorial dispute between Beijing and a number of its neighbors.

China interpreted Washington’s operation as an attempt to “stir up trouble.”

The two sides are separately locked in a trade row.

Last July, the US imposed 25-percent duties on $34 billion of imports from China, prompting Beijing to take a set of retaliatory measures.

Washington will be increasing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports from 10 to 25 percent in the next month unless the two reach a deal that could avert the prospect.

KD