Source: Survival
An article by Ashley Tellis in the September 2007 issue of Survival challenges the conventional wisdom that China's antisatellite test (ASAT) was a protest against U.S. space policy, arguing instead that it was part of a loftier strategy to combat U.S. military superiority and one that China will not trade away in any arms-control regime.
Far from a response to assertive U.S. space policies, Tellis contends in "China's Military Space Strategy" that the ASAT test was part of a more ambitious goal--namely, defeating superior U.S. conventional forces, both in a potential war over Taiwan, as well as other long-term, geopolitical scenarios. The author states that Chinese analyses of U.S. military operations since Desert Storm concluded that U.S. military might depends inordinately on space-based systems for its operational effectiveness and hence must be targeted if China is to be able to stand up to the enormity of U.S. conventional military power.
In February 2008, Survival invited a group of scholars to respond to Tellis' article. See "China's Military Space Strategy: An Exchange" in the right sidebar for more.