US calls space a wild west. China says policing it normalises warfare
China is likely to shrug off the US’ call for rules governing space behaviour because Beijing would view that as legitimising space militarisation, a Chinese expert said, as the nations’ rivalry in the domain intensifies.
It was this week revealed that in July a US surveillance satellite approached a Chinese satellite in orbit, and the latter quickly manoeuvred to escape being shadowed.
This incident was another case of the frequent attempts at spying and counter-espionage in space among the United States, Russia and China, and added to concerns that risks of disastrous collisions in space were growing in line with the space race itself.
The US has described some approaches to its satellites by Russian spacecraft as “irresponsible” and there have been calls for some form of international code of conduct in space, similar to the 1972 Incidents at Sea agreement between the US and the former Soviet Union.
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So far, the only international agreement on this issue is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbids states from placing nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space or on celestial bodies such as the moon.
In principle, it advocates the use of outer space “for the benefit and in the interests” of all humankind, but it lacks detailed and substantial restrictions on military activities.
John Raymond, the US Space Force commander, has described space as a “wild, wild west”, featuring increasing commercial and military involvement by many countries.
“We really believe – I really believe – there needs to be some rules [on] safe and professional conduct,” Raymond said earlier this year. “I think our allies and partners that we operate with also think that.”
But China and Russia have different ideas as to what such rules should target.
In 2014, the two jointly proposed a legally binding prohibition of weapons in space, the Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects.
Despite agreeing that existing international legal instruments were not sufficient to meet new challenges, China has said that the urgency lies in the need for an outer space arms control treaty, arguing that American complaints about behaviour had a “different agenda” and avoided the important issues.
To make rules governing military activities in space would technically allow such activities in the first place, contradicting China’s stance of non-weaponisation of outer space, said Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping.
“It is possible to establish an international agreement on space debris management, reporting and early-warning mechanisms to protect each other’s orbital assets,” he said.
Beijing has accused the US of frequent close reconnaissance of other countries’ satellites in space and high-risk operations such as orbital flights, offensive and defensive confrontation technology tests, which it said interfered with other countries’ normal outer-space activities, threatened those countries’ space assets and exacerbated tensions, raising the risk of miscalculation and conflict.
The US has condemned China for its anti-satellite ballistic missile tests, and raised questions over Chinese developing technologies such as “scavenger” spacecraft with robotic arms that can grab debris and potentially other satellites in orbit.
Despite being defined by the Outer Space Treaty as a “global common”, space suffers a “tragedy of the commons” by being filled with debris, overcrowded with spacecraft and dominated by space powers’ selfish interests, according to He Qisong, professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
“The main cause of the difficulties in space governance is that space technologies can be used for both military and civilian purposes,” He wrote in an article.
Advanced space technologies that could bolster military strategies were among the fundamentals of American hegemony, prompting other countries to upgrade their capability to challenge it, according to He.
“Under these circumstances, it is unlikely that the United States will take the lead in setting international norms in [space arms control],” he said.
Only when Chinese space weaponry developed to the point where it could effectively counter American capability would the United States take part in negotiations with the international community, including China, about space security, He predicted.