NEW DELHI -- Whatever may have been China's motivation, its Jan. 11 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon test is bound to have lasting global impact like no other military event in recent years.
Three issues stand out on the surprise test: Beijing's ingrained opacity, which prevented it from owning up to the test for almost two weeks; a lot of unsafe space debris to last decades in low orbit as a result of the destruction of one of China's aging weather satellites; and the setting of a treacherous precedent (it was the first ASAT kill by any power in more than two decades).
While China's message, in line with its growing geopolitical ambitions, may have been directed at America, its immediate neighbors like Japan and India are likely to be more rattled by its precision in timing a high-speed rocket carrying a "kinetic" weapon to kill a circling satellite. Although the rocket probably was the KT-1, similar to India's PSLV, the demonstrated sophistication invokes wishful thinking about averting militarization of space.
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