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China Tests Anti-Satellite Laser Weapon

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-people's-laser dept.

schnippy writes "U.S. intelligence agencies believe that China has successfully tested an anti-satellite weapon by destroying one of their old weather satellites. The test, if confirmed, would be an order of magnitude more provocative than earlier reports of Chinese blinding lasers being. Arms Control Wonk has a good writeup on what this will mean for U.S. policy."

11 of 552 comments (clear)

  1. How is this provocative ? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The USA already has this sort of capability ... so why is China having this procative ?

    Or is it OK for the USA to have it but no one else ? I suppose it depends on who you consider the bad guys. I note that China has invaded fewer countries in the last 50 years than the USA has ... so what is the answer to the question ?

    1. Re:How is this provocative ? by splutty · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Yes Gulf War II was a big disaster. However, if the situation ever stabilizes the Iraqis will have a chance to guide their own lives. China's policy in Tibet is to weaken the local populice by flooding the area with Han Chinese immigrants. I suspect that most Tibetans would like to control their own future if possible but at this point they'd be glad to just not watch as their culture is destroyed in front of their eyes. I don't see that kind of cultural assassination going on in Iraq.

      Sorry.. I normally try to refrain from commenting on these kind of issues, since I'm European, and will be considered someone not knowledgable enough by a lot of people. But... I can't resist this time.

      The US is actually doing *exactly* that in Iraq: Do things our "democratic" way or we'll stay here and keep killing people. You'd see this if you'd actually look at things happening from a distance. The current not-yet-civil war is a direct result of the US removing the one authority figure in charge, and trying to democratize the country. I personally believe that Iraq isn't A> ready B> helped with democracy.

      You can't force two peoples (in this case mainly divided along religious borders) to work together if they don't want to, and haven't in known history. This is simply an enormous mistake in thinking.

      Democracy is what works for *us* (most of the time anyway), but forcing that on other people and countries should not be the way to propagate it, I think.

      Feel free to disagree, but that's my (possibly biased) point of view.
      --
      Coz eternity my friend, is a long *ing time.
    2. Re:How is this provocative ? by chrysrobyn · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Sorry.. I normally try to refrain from commenting on these kind of issues, since I'm European, and will be considered someone not knowledgable enough by a lot of people. But... I can't resist this time.

      As an American who put in over a year overseas, I know our foreign policy reputation at this time. It's not kind. I have been recognized on the streets as an American and confronted on my political beliefs. I'd like to think I gave the "right answer", but I honestly don't know what would have happened a few times if I had expressed support for my president. Let me just let you know, there are many of us (maybe less than 50%, but more than 10%) who believe the French were right in holding off invasion plans and who believe the United Nations was founded in order to prevent another World War II. A seemingly unending bureaucracy it may be, but it's checked by the majority of countries with a last sanity check of the consensus of a diverse group with the most vested interest in a stable world.

      We're fighting to change the political future of our country. It's slow, and it's built upon a mountain of vested interests in large corporations and minimization of energy insecurity.

    3. Re:How is this provocative ? by DaFallus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How dare a nation be taken away from one group of people and be given to another simply because we feel sorry for them! Why don't we just give France to all the descendants of American slaves while we're at it? Makes just as much sense as taking Israel away from Palestinians and giving it to holocaust survivors after WWII.

      --
      No one cares what your captcha was

      Houston TX, USA
  2. LASER weapon? by hasmael · · Score: 5, Informative
    From TFA: " ...weather satellite target with a kinetic kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile"

    That doesn't sound like a LASER weapon.

  3. Re:short term by pipatron · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And this is different from any other country how? Maybe they feel it's just about time for China, the largest and oldest nation on earth, to keep up with the competition?

    --
    c++; /* this makes c bigger but returns the old value */
  4. Re:IMHO by grimJester · · Score: 5, Funny

    Considering that they shot down one of their own satellites, perhaps the US could shoot down one of their own satellites. From a European perspective this would be the funniest escalation of hostilities since Freedom Fries.

  5. Funny that we should view this as "provocative" by golodh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's ironic that the US should view this as "provocative" in the light of its stated policy to achieve hegemony in space (see http://www.space.com/news/061007_bush_spacepolicy. html for the administrations statement of policy , and see http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=199827&cid=163 65327 for my earlier post on the matter, which refers to US weaponisation of space http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,13 45460,00.html, and the Airforce acquiring new business http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology /higher_ground_040222.html)

    I certainly won't claim that China wouldn't have pressed ahead with its anti-sattelite weapon if the US hadn't stated space hegemony as its policy objective, but in terms of being provocative it really seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The US space policy is confrontational if nothing else.

    I'm fairly confident that the recently unveiled US space policy caused a massive "Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" response among China, Russia, India, and perhaps others too.

  6. Re:Just what the world needs... by meckardt · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...another cold war.

    Maybe this will offset all the Global Warming.

  7. Re:IMHO by amliebsch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's as funny as nations conducting nuclear testing on their own soil!

    Wait, that wasn't really funny at all. Maybe you had to be there.

    --
    If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
  8. China just need to put dollars in market by LiquidNitrogen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    China just need to put all the dollars they have accumulated in market and boom!!! it would affect US economy more than if they a war instead.