It was a long way from the “Pearl Harbor in space” that former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld once warned of. Yet when China destroyed one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile in January, the reaction from Washington was apoplectic.
Was China kicking off an arms race in space, the State Department demanded. Beijing’s explanation was slow to come – and guarded when it did. It had no intention of militarising space; its new-found capability to destroy spacecraft posed no threat, it said. As most analysts see it, China was aiming a warning shot at the US, whose…
