China warns of 'arms race in outer space'

[Chipstone306]

Seems to me that when it comes to this discussion on a weaponized spaceage....China is about 17 years too late

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090812/china_space_090812/20090812?hub=SciTech

 

[Dig Gil]

Oh no! The Cold War is arriving! Again....

The United States has dismissed the criticism as designed to block its plans for a missile interceptor system -- while leaving untouched Chinese and Russian ground-based missiles that can fire into space.

"Countries should neither develop missile defense systems that undermine global strategic stability nor deploy weapons in outer space," Yang said.

This smells something weird...

 

[Ark]

I'm willing to bet China has an extensive space-based weapons program already.

We ARE talking about the country that had a little girl lip-sync at the Olympics because the actual singer wasn't cute enough for TV.

 

[agentgonzo]

AFAIK, the only two aggressive military actions in space in recent times (excluding spy satellites etc) have been two ASAT firings, one by China, one by the USA.

 

[simonpro]

Interesting timing. Sounds like the Chinese are fed up about PAN.

 

[Apollo 11]

Them Chinese are some wacky folks. To be honest, I think they just might rule the world one day. They could "starve" the world of a whole lot if they ever went on strike, or stopped exporting.

p.s. sorry if my Texas speech is a little confusing for our non-nitive english speakers.

 

[Star Voyager]

That's okay. I was born in Houston! I have had similar thoughts, especially when Shenhzhou 7 launched.

 

[RisingFury]

China and Russia know they're falling way behind, that's why they're so eager to ban space weapons.

Also...

He added that China welcomed moves to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

Wtf?

 

[Urwumpe]

Falling behind? The USA are still not doing with their ABM and ASAT programs, what they didn't do in 1986.

The problem is more: What are you fighting for there? A few ASATs don't deny space from your enemies, but also from you, if you use them.

 

[simonpro]

To be honest, I think they just might rule the world one day.

It's pretty obvious that they will, economists have been predicting it for years. As soon as they get the countryside into shape then they'll be by far the world's largest superpower.

 

[Moonwalker]

Them Chinese are some wacky folks.

Not more wacky than the ignorant and arrogant average American or German.

To be honest, I think they just might rule the world one day. They could "starve" the world of a whole lot if they ever went on strike, or stopped exporting.

Which would economically ruine China as well.

I'm not afraid of China. I don't see China practicing such an arrogant global foreign policy like the USA and EU does by intervene to almost anything, based on what they believe should be valid for the whole globe.

 

[Apollo 11]

Yes.. however if any country would ever launch a space "weapon" into orbit, There's no doubt in my mind that it would be the Chinese of the Koreans. (Well, mabey the US would do it just for fun, haha)

But honestly, China is in the perfect situation to take down a country. For instance, let's use the US. We're currently in a "war" in Iraq. We have a weak economy and unemployment is high. If China were to invade us (which no one's ever done before) we'd be at they're mercy. When you look at it, if anyone wanted to blow us to kingdom come, now'd be fine time to do it. Of course, not many countries of considerable power are willing to wage war against the US and we have some pretty strong Allies. (UK, France, Germany, ect...)

But back on the original topic, China's asking for trouble making that satement. It's like N. Korea test firing missles. What do you think is gonna happen? Is the world gonna ingore you? No, you'll get some attention. Now, granted I don't think the US would challenge China on THIS, but you don't know.

Y'all can take that however you'd like, they're my opinions, not yours.

 

[Urwumpe]

China is much weaker as economists paint it, historically China was always an economic power, but had problems with domestics politics. You can't just take economic factors alone for deciding political power. In the times of the best economic situation, China had the tendency to break apart. Always out of the same reasons. The economic growth was created on the backs of the poor, and social injustice turned into social uprising. I don't see any reason to assume that China is today more just than before - in fact, it is again equipped with a modern nobility.

 

[Moonwalker]

The bigger they come, the harder they fall. Not only the banking system of China was wobbly often enough in the past. And not to mention that more than 90% of the Chinese live in almost disgraceful circumstances. "1 Billion Chinese want to drive car", has almost become a saying within political and ecological debates. But it won't get beyond "they want to".

Sure, China is mighty in terms of economic power. But it won't overcome the USA and EU on the whole and rule everything. A lot of Chinese themselves, those who are able to use modern communication technologies and like to adapt to western lifestyle, have already realised that they are not the Middle Kingdom.

 

[Oceanic]

i really don't get it why people have such a strange view about China.

China isn't warmongering like

United States - United Kingdom - Germany - Italy - France - Canada - Poland - Netherlands - Turkey - Australia - Romania - Bulgaria - Spain - Denmark - Czech Republic - Norway - Belgium - Hungary - Sweden - Croatia - Slovakia - Lithuania - Macedonia - Latvia - New Zealand - Albania - Estonia - Greece - Finland - Azerbaijan - Slovenia - Portugal - United Arab Emirates - Singapore - Ukraine - Luxembourg - Iceland - Ireland - Jordan - Austria - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Georgia, all bringing "democracy" to Afghanistan

then we got USA again in Iraq

Russia's invasion in Georgia

Israel - Egypt - Jordan - Lebanon - Palestinia - Syria still fighting for the "holy land"

Pakistan vs India

Venezuela vs Honduras (no armed conflict but both poking with sticks)

last but not least Iran & North Korea not really pushing for any kind of war (my opinion) but don't want to be neglected by the rest of the world, i'm sorry but who are we (the western civilization) to deny any one nuclear power / atom-bombs? if i would be a citizen of Iran i would be very happy to have atom-bombs, too. after seeing the west invade Afghanistan and Iraq and knowing only with an atom-bomb at your disposal you could keep them (us) out. (i'm not saying launching it!! because that would be suicide)

i left every domestic policy conflict out. China - Tibet would fall in that category but the same goes for Spain - ETA aka Basque Homeland and Freedom and Canada - Quebec, okay the last one is not that resent but i hope you can see my point that conflicts like these are problems of the respective state and no one else! unfortunately we have two examples how it went wrong both ways see Russia - Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and Sudan - Darfur.

so China has done nothing but nothing wrong, where does that hate and fear come from?

China is trying to close the gap to the G8 - let's better say G2 (USA - Russia in turns of military and space technology). some might say i'm naive to believe China on this one.
but i think there are two important things that the West is forgetting here. first it is a developing country that means the West needs to do the first steps not China! second it is a completely different culture.

i'm not saying in any way China is perfect but the United States (and most of the western civilization) are not in any way better.

Global Peace Index shows United States on rank 83 and China on 72 (lower number is better) comparison between US China and Russia the interesting thing is that China's bad rank is mostly because of the political instability regarding Tibet.

So why the hate and fear?

 

[simonpro]

Sweden? War mongering?
No we're not.

 

[Oceanic]

Sweden? War mongering?
No we're not.

i didn't want to offend anybody, Sweden has been in Afghanistan since 2002 and have 350 soldiers there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participants in Operation Enduring Freedom

but i have to admit that Sweden and the rest of the nordic countries are the most peaceful and civilized in the world

 

[Moonwalker]

where does that hate and fear come from?

I think basically from our press. The press is the Fourth Estate, which has essential influence to the public opinion of democratic societies.

Peter Scholl-Latour, an independent German journalist and publicist who has visited many countries in his life (he was in Vietnam in the 1960's and many other crisis regions), says that whenever he arrives in a crisis region or developing country, it takes about 3-4 days for him to withstand the initial confusion, because what he finds and experiences mostly does not at all correspond to what he read in western newspapers before. And he even goes the extra mile and says that the western freedom of press, although it is still better than elsewhere, ultimately is the freedom of 200 rich people to publish their opinion...

it is a completely different culture.

Indeed. It is a culture that is nearly 4.000 years old.

i'm not saying in any way China is perfect but the United States (and most of the western civilization) are not in any way better.

Regarding foreign affairs, the United States and European Union is even worse. They stick their noses into nearly everything that is interesting in terms of imperialistic motives.

 

[Urwumpe]

Oceanic: So, you want to say that the state of Afghanistan before Enduring Freedom and ISAF was better and more peaceful?

 

[tl8]

What does Afghanistan have to do with an arms war in space?

Please try and keep it to the topic at hand.