Beijing has also done everything possible to increase American apprehension.
China’s unannounced test of a hypersonic glide vehicle in August signals that the Chinese regime is about to violate the Outer Space Treaty. The United States should now withdraw from that global agreement so that it can develop a similar weapon. Unfortunately, Washington is not even trying to catch up to its geopolitical arch-foe. This month, the Financial Times revealed that China launched such a vehicle into „low-orbit space.“ The glide vehicle „circled the globe“ and then cruised down toward a target, missing it by „about two-dozen miles.“ Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on October 18 contradicted the FT report, saying the object launched into orbit was a reusable „spacecraft.“ Moreover, Zhao said what returned to earth was not a warhead; rather, it was, he told reporters, „the supporting devices“ of the spacecraft. His contentions were not credible. The first sentence of Article IV of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies of 1967, better known as the „Outer Space Treaty,“ states that signatories to the pact „undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.“ As Peter Huessy of the Air Force Association and GeoStrategic Analysis tells Newsweek, the treaty does not prohibit a nuclear device flying through space on a ballistic missile—such missiles travel in arcs that transit space for a few minutes—but the pact does proscribe a nuke that makes at least one full orbit around the earth. China’s hypersonic glide vehicle did not carry a live nuke, so it didn’t run afoul of the treaty—but, as Richard Fisher of the Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center told me, Beijing’s intent to violate the pact is clear. Hypersonic glide vehicles are designed, after all, to deliver nuclear weapons. In September, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said China was developing the „potential for global strikes from space“ and indicated the Chinese were working on something akin to the Soviet „Fractional Orbital Bombardment System“ (FOBS).
