As China Talks Peace in Space, Researcher Shows Secret Chinese Anti-Satellite, EMP Bases

Chinese soldiers stand at attention during a military exercise in this file photo. VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images

News Analysis

Satellite imagery has revealed a secret anti-satellite weapons base in China, as well as electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons testing facilities. This news is making the rounds online even as the Chinese regime is criticizing India for its space weapons programs, and is calling for peace in space.

The discovery was made by retired Indian Army Col. Vinayak Bhat, who specializes in satellite image analysis focused on China. He noted in India’s The Print news website that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) now has several of these facilities, including in Tibet and Xinjiang.

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Bhat wrote that the facilities have tracking equipment, and it is believed the anti-satellite laser weapons stationed in buildings with sliding roofs can be used for varying purposes that include blinding or destroying satellites.

The EMP weapons facilities, meanwhile, appear to be for testing. They include some simulated electrical infrastructure and nearby facilities housing the weapons. Included in one image is what appears to be a mobile EMP generator.

These images are being circulated just after India tested an anti-satellite missile and destroyed a satellite March 27. The test sent debris hurtling through orbit.

After the recent test, the CCP came out playing the peacekeeper. According to The Times of India, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press conference, “Outer space is shared by the entire mankind. Every country has the right to make peaceful exploration and use of outer space.”

In reality, the CCP has been highly aggressive with its military space programs. It tested its first anti-satellite weapon in May 2005, and shocked the space community in 2007 when it used a missile to destroy its Feng Yun 1-C weather satellite, and sent over 3,000 pieces of debris into low-earth orbit.

The CCP has continued testing its anti-satellite weapons since then, and the secret laser weapons facilities revealed by satellite imagery are just small pieces of the bigger picture.

In its 2015 Annual Report to the Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission warned that “China’s recent space activities indicate that it is developing co-orbital anti-satellite systems to target U.S. space assets.”

Militarily, space is regarded as the “ultimate high ground.” Weapons placed in orbit could allegedly target missiles on earth as they launch, nuclear weapons could be detonated in orbit for destructive EMP without the need for launch, and satellites crucial for military communications and targeting can be destroyed.

Under the CCP’s unconventional warfare programs designed to destroy the weakest links of the U.S. military, weapons of these types are regarded as highly valuable. CCP military doctrine such as its Assassin’s Mace or “Trump Card” program describe such weapons directly.

In 2014, Chinese Ret. Lt. Gen. Wang Hongguang threatened the United States with these weapons systems in the CCP’s state-run Global Times news outlet. Wang said that the CCP would use these weapons suddenly, and warned Americans in their “pride and arrogance” to “not get trampled beneath us.”

Public information on the CCP’s Assassin’s Mace weapons are thin, but a 2011 report from the National Ground Intelligence Center said, “These modern Trump Card and Assassin’s Mace weapons will permit China’s low-technology forces to prevail over U.S. high-technology forces in a localized conflict.”

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, on April 3, little has changed. It says, “China and Russia in particular are developing a variety of means to exploit perceived U.S. reliance on space-based systems and challenge the U.S. position in space.”

It’s in this context that President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 26 to harden U.S. critical infrastructure to protect against EMP attacks. It’s also in this context that Trump is pushing for a Space Force military branch that would consolidate U.S. military space programs.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.