China's Military Space Strategy

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In The Media

China's Military Space Strategy

China's recent antisatellite test was not a protest against U.S. space policy, but rather, 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.

By Ashley J. Tellis

Published on Sep 3, 2007

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.

About the Author

Ashley J. Tellis

Former Senior Fellow

Ashley J. Tellis was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Recent Work

Paper
Multipolar Dreams, Bipolar Realities: India’s Great Power Future
- Ashley J. Tellis
Commentary
India Sees Opportunity in Trump’s Global Turbulence. That Could Backfire.
- Ashley J. Tellis

Security Military Foreign Policy North America United States East Asia China Taiwan

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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