China Weaponizing Space: Obama Declares He is First “Pacific President” - Allies Worry

 As Obama is in Asia comes a stark assessment of the Chinese militarizing space over the past decade and its goals are unknown, U.S. Strategic Command commander Gen. Kevin P. Chilton said last week.

“With regard to China’s capabilities, I think anyone who’s familiar with this business — and particularly our history in this business over the years — would have to be absolutely amazed at the advancement that China has made in such a short period of time, whether that be in their unmanned program or the manned program,” Chilton told reporters in a teleconference, referring to Beijing’s space program.

“They have rapidly advanced over the last ten years,” he said from Omaha, Nebraska.

“Where they’re heading I think is one of those things that a lot of people would like to understand better, what their goals and objectives are. But they certainly are on a fast track to improve their capabilities,” he said.

China conducted a successful test of a direct ascent anti-satellite missile in January 2007 that was viewed by U.S. military strategists as a strategic advance because it demonstrated that during a conflict China could cripple U.S. high-technology warfare efforts by knocking out key navigation, targeting, communications and command and control satellites.

The comments by Chilton came shortly after the new U.S. Pacific Command commander, Adm. Robert Willard, told reporters last month that China’s military buildup had exceeded U.S. intelligence estimates for more than a decade, a damning indictment of U.S. intelligence analysis of China.

Chilton responded to comments by a Chinese Air Force commander, Gen. Xu Qilang, who stated in state-run media that militarizing space was inevitable.

Chilton said Beijing’s space program “is an area that we’ll want to explore and understand exactly what China’s intentions are here, and why they might want to go in that direction and what grounds might accommodate a different direction.”

On the eve of Obama’s Asian trip a Thomson Reuters/Ipsos poll of 1,077 adults aged 18 and older across the United States was disclosed . The poll respondents were asked to identify China as either an “ally” or an “adversary” and 56 percent characterized Beijing as a foe, while only 33 put the country in the ally column, according to Ipsos Public Affairs, which conducted the poll for Thomson Reuters.

When asked to choose from a list of nations that are “the most important” bilateral relationship, 34 percent chose China, 23 percent picked Britain, and 18 percent chose Canada.

Relations with China have been difficult since formal diplomatic ties were established in 1979 under an ambiguous series of communiques that left unanswered U.S. support for and informal relations with Taiwan.

China has vowed to use force to reunite Taiwan with the mainland, viewing the island as a breakaway province. The United States has vowed to provide Taiwan with defense weapons to prevent the use of force and for some U.S. administrations have received greater or lesser support. Obama recently refused to sell Taiwan advanced fights needed to upgrade its defense forces, and clearly equivocated on U. S. defense of the 25 million Taiwanese and public opinion there doubts Obama’s resolve to defend it against China. .

Friday Obama called himself the first U. S. “pacific President” referring to his time spend in Indonesia as a youth. The claim is ironic because  in 2007 Obama went to great lengths of describe the time he lived in Indonesia as a child, from 1967 to 1971, with his mother and stepfather and has acknowledged attending a Muslim school. According to a CNN investigation the school was not  a radical Muslim School known as a madrassa.

“This is a public school. We don’t focus on religion,” Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the Basuki school, told CNN’s Vause. “In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don’t give preferential treatment.”

Nevertheless Obama’s characterization will almost certainly rekindle doubts of his sympathies and perceived shift away from traditional allies.

For instance the Jeruslaem Post reports a sharp fall from nearly 90% to just 4% of Israeli’s who now believe the U. S. is a stalwart ally.