Satellite wars: China's anti-satellite weapons test is part of a larger effort to build a military capacity to confront the United States.(CHINA)

On January 11, China's Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) weather satellite placidly swooped around the Earth in the same sun-synchronous polar orbit it had maintained ever since it was boosted into space atop a Long March rocket in 1999. But its repetitive march around the globe was about to be brought to an abrupt and spectacular end. On the ground in China, the 2nd Artillery Battalion of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched a medium range ballistic missile that quickly rocketed into the sky and disappeared into space. Shortly thereafter, it slammed into the hapless FY-1C satellite 537 miles above the Earth, sending bits of debris spiraling out into space in all directions. In an instant, China became the third nation, after the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, to demonstrate an anti-satellite weapons capability.

The test alarmed much of the world and sent shivers through the U.S. defense establishment, but Chinese officials at first feigned ignorance, then sought to downplay the test. "The test was not directed at any country and does not constitute a threat to any country," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. "What needs to be stressed is that China has always advocated the peaceful use of space, [and] opposes the weaponization of space and an arms race.... China has never participated and will never participate in any arms race in outer space."

The truth is at odds with the diplomatic niceties. Because the United States, far more than any other nation, depends on satellite-based capabilities for ...