China said Wednesday that the Trump administration’s plan to construct a so-called “Golden Dome” missile defense system to protect the U.S. from missile attacks carries “strong offensive implications” and will increase the risks of a global arms race and militarizing outer space. President Trump said Tuesday that his administration had “officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system,” and that a budget package currently being deliberated by Congress would provide an initial $25 billion in funding for the project.
An unclassified assessment by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency shows the military expects to be contending with missile threats that are greater in “scale and sophistication in the coming decade,” noting specifically that “China and Russia are developing an array of novel delivery systems to exploit gaps in the current U.S. ballistic missile defenses.”
“North Korea has successfully tested ballistic missiles with sufficient range to reach the entire homeland, and Iran has space launch vehicles it could use to develop a military-viable ICBM by 2035, should Tehran decide to pursue the capability,” the DIA assessment said, warning that already, “there is no part of the homeland which cannot be struck by existing ICBMs.”
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But China, which has been deepening its ties with Russia while rapidly developing its missile and other military capabilities, including its nuclear weapons, accused the Trump administration of obsessing over U.S. defense at the risk of endangering global security.
“The United States, in pursuing a ‘U.S.-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability. China is seriously concerned about this,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wednesday during a regular briefing in Beijing, according to multiple international news agencies.
The White House plan “heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security,” she said. “We urge the United States to abandon the development and deployment of a global missile defense system as soon as possible.”
The U.S. military has said for years that China and Russia are already deploying weapons in space, with reports suggesting everything from laser weapons to Chinese satellites with the ability to disable or even capture American satellites. Last year, the U.S. warned Russia against deploying a nuclear-capable anti-satellite weapon that analysts believe could loiter in space for long periods of time before emitting a burst that would disable all satellites around it.
In Russia’s capital, meanwhile, the Kremlin said Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s plans would require consultations between Moscow and Washington, but a spokesperson said it was largely a “sovereign matter” for the U.S.
It was a softer stance than taken previously by the regime of President Vladimir Putin, which had recently published a statement saying the new American missile defense system would explicitly give Moscow an impetus “for a significant strengthening of the arsenal for conducting combat operations in space.”
Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, as he made his announcement, that he’d not yet spoken with Putin about his plans, but he said he would, “at the right time.”
China and Russia, in a joint statement issued earlier in the month, called the Golden Dome project, “deeply destabilizing in nature,” and the two U.S. adversaries said it would turn space into “an arena for armed confrontation.”
Eleanor Watson and
Kathryn Watson
contributed to this report.
