*Look, people, it would be really exciting and
interesting if the Red Chinese had secret, inscrutable,
microsatellite parasite super space-weapons,
and maybe they even do. But you can't just
listen to some hobbyist clown with a BBS
and then blow that back to the US Congress
as if it were gospel. That goes way beyond
paranoia. That's just plain stupid.
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2004_8_17.html#22F6E1DD
Critics Question Evidence for U.S. Charge That China Might Have Antisatellite Program
A source for a claim in an annual U.S. Defense Department report to Congress that China has tested antisatellite weapons may not be credible, the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded in a report issued last week (seeGSN, June 11).
The 2003 edition of the Pentagon's Annual Report on the Military Power of the People's Republic of China cites a "Hong Kong newspaper article in January 2001" reporting that China has "developed and tested an ASAT system described as a parasitic microsatellite."øSuch a device attaches itself to a larger satellite to disrupt or destroy it on command.
The 2003 Defense Department report goes on to explain that the article's claim "cannot be confirmed."øThis year's edition of the report adds that the evidence presented in the article is still "being evaluated."
While the Union of Concerned Scientists does not take a position on whether China is developing or testing the weapon, it questions the credibility of the newspaper report.
The article in question, from the Xing Dao Daily in Hong Kong, appears to be a cleaned-up version of an October 2000 article by a "military enthusiast" who operates a "Chinese-language Internet bulletin board filled with fanciful stories about `secret' Chinese weapons to be used against Americans in a future war over Taiwan," according to the UCS report (Union of Concerned Scientists report, Aug. 12).
