China satellite-killing weapon rattles US

A top US defence official today called China’s test of a satellite-killing weapon a display of an “obviously destabilising capability” that underlined the need for better communication to defuse possible conflict between the two powers.

Richard Lawless, US deputy under-secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told a congressional advisory panel that the US considers the January 11 destruction of a defunct Chinese weather satellite by a warhead an “unpleasant development”.