August 3, 2006 :: AFP :: News
China’s space program has to a large extent been a military undertaking from the very beginning, reports the AFP. The article quotes a group of unidentified researchers at the Chinese National Defense University, who yesterday published an article in the mass-circulation
People’s Daily that listed space as an area where the People’s Liberation Army must be equipped and prepared to defend Chinese national interests. “Our military should not only protect China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, but should also protect the oceans and transport routes and other economic interests as well as … the security of space,” it said. A similar suggestion was put forth last month in the
Study Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party’s Central Party School. “We should strive to develop coordinated land, sea, air and space systems,” the article said. The AFP notes that the new emphasis on space as a possible theater of operations for China’s armed forces is a noteworthy departure from previous Chinese strategic literature, which tended to give space a less prominent place in defense planning.
(Article)
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