China claims military 'trump card' with space launch

November 22, 1999
Web posted at: 12:53 p.m. EST (1753 GMT)

In this story: Analyst: 'It's purely prestige' Third nation to achieve space flight RELATED STORIES, SITES

BEIJING (CNN) -- Chinese officials Monday boasted of major military and commercial implications from the nation's first successful test of a spacecraft designed for manned flight. But outside analysts said national pride and the status of President Jiang Zemin were the real winners.

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China launched the unmanned spacecraft, named Shenzhou, or "Vessel of the Gods," Saturday at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest Gansu province. It orbited Earth 14 times and landed as planned in north China early Sunday, state media reported.

An official Chinese newspaper reported Monday that the launch had proved China has mastered technology that could defeat U.S. anti-missile defenses.

China's development of low-momentum rocket propulsion "is equivalent to having a trump card to counter TMD and NMD (anti-missile defense systems being developed by the U.S.)," the newspaper said. "We can use his technology to change trajectories in flight, making missiles do a little dance and evade opponents' attacks."

The same low power propulsion technology used in the maiden flight could also be used to alter the path of the defense missiles, military expert Song Yichang told the state-run China Business Times.

The newspaper report was described elsewhere as rare official confirmation that the Chinese government is not just relying on diplomatic pressure, but is interested in seeking technological ways to combat the proposed defense systems, which China has vehemently opposed.

"This technology will be used in commercial launches," said Eric Li, a satellite specialist with Beijing-based consultancy Claydon Gescher Associates.

Analyst: 'It's purely prestige'

Saturday's successful launch would "strengthen China's position in the commercial launches of foreign satellites in the long run," he said, adding that the Chinese commercial launch program was solidly booked for the next 18 months.

While the military implications of the launch had not been immediately addressed by U.S. officials, Joan Johnson-Freese, a space expert at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii and the author of six books on space, noted that the Long March rocket used to launch the spacecraft was not the same as rockets used commercially.

"Its purely prestige," she said. "Their technology is very crude and very Spartan in some ways. If you want to put a precision satellite in orbit, no, China is not where you go."

Third nation to achieve space flight

China's success came 42 years after the former Soviet Union became the first nation to go into space.

But it made China only the third nation in history to launch a vehicle capable of carrying a man into space, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Analysts said the display of domestic expertise also allowed China to thumb its nose at U.S. critics who accuse it of stealing U.S. space technology.

"It enables China to say again: 'You claim we had stolen your technology. I don't think so. Look at what we can do on our own,'" Johnson-Freese said.

In May, a U.S. congressional report by Rep. Christopher Cox, a California Republican, alleged that Chinese agents stole U.S. space, missile and nuclear secrets.

A state television announcer said the Shenzhou spacecraft was launched by a new model of the Long March rocket at 6:30 a.m. Saturday local time from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

The report said the space capsule was brought in for a smooth touchdown in the Inner Mongolia region of North China at 3:41 a.m. local time. Video on China State TV channel 4 showed the massive Long March rocket being rolled to the launching pad and being locked into a vertical position.

Other video showed the control room filled with technicians and military personnel peering intently at computers, followed by a nighttime launch.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.