China's military space power growing

In the marketplace
The newly issued report highlights the fact that not only is China expanding indigenous capabilities, it is also marketing its technological space knowledge—satellite building, manufacturing, and launch services—to the international market.

As example, the report describes two international contracts between China and other nations—one with Nigeria and one with Venezuela—for the design and manufacture of communication satellites based on their Dongfanghong-4 (DFH-4) spacecraft.

“China may be developing a system of data relay satellites to support global coverage, and has reportedly acquired mobile data reception equipment that could support more rapid data transmission to deployed military forces and units,” the report states.

Additionally, China is studying and seeking foreign assistance for developing small satellites, lofting a number of them since 2000 for oceanographic, imagery, and environmental monitoring purposes.

China is also developing microsatellites—weighing less than 100 kilograms—for remote sensing and networks of electro-optical and radar satellites,” the DoD assessment notes. “These developments could allow for a more rapid reconstitution or expansion of their satellite force given any disruption in coverage.”

Anti-satellite weaponry
The Pentagon report warns that Beijing “continues to pursue an offensive anti-satellite system,” saying that China can currently destroy or disable satellites only by launching a ballistic missile or space-launch vehicle armed with a nuclear weapon.

“However, there are many risks associated with this method, and potentially adverse consequences from the use of nuclear weapons,” the report adds. “Evidence exists that China is improving its situational awareness in space, which will give it the ability to track and identify most satellites. Such capability will allow for the deconfliction of Chinese satellites, and would also be required for offensive actions. At least one of the satellite attack systems appears to be a ground-based laser designed to damage or blind imaging satellites.”

China is also working on several types of “new concept” weapon systems, the report says, including a radio frequency (RF) weapon, citing Chinese writings that suggest it could be used against satellites in orbit.

Useless compendium
A critic of the U.S. Secretary of Defense-issued report is space policy and arms control analyst, Jeffrey Lewis. He thinks poorly of the assessment and judges it far from a work of scholarship.

Lewis is Executive Director of the Project on Managing the Atom at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“This report, as in previous years, suffers from the usual defects associated with a report drafted by committee and rushed into print with poor or compromise editing,” Lewis told SPACE.com.

He added that the report’s space section is little more than a laundry list of Chinese space activities.

“A member of Congress or defense analyst looking to argue that China is developing anti-satellite weapons might find such a list useful,” Lewis said. “But an analyst attempting to make a serious, evidence-based assessment should regard the report as a useless compendium of previously established facts lacking the necessary qualifications about what the intelligence community does not know.”

For example, Lewis said that the Pentagon view of China’s laser weaponry proficiency falls short. Previous reports, he added, described limits to what the intelligence community knew about Chinese laser research, noting that “whether this claim extends to actual facilities” or “whether Beijing has tested such a capability is unclear.”

Lewis said that the U.S. Congress ought to create a requirement that the Director of National Intelligence—not the Secretary of Defense—report on Chinese military power.

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