China Urges 'Peaceful' Space Cooperation As U.S. Grapples with UFO Debate
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China
Urges 'Peaceful' Space Cooperation As U.S.
Grapples with UFO Debate
As
U.S. lawmakers called on the government to
release more information in line with the Pentagon's
efforts to track unidentified aerial phenomena
(UAPs), a Chinese official told Newsweek that
Beijing sought greater cooperation on matters
related to outer space.
The
congressional calls came in the wake of a series
of hearings held last week by the House
Oversight Committee, where witnesses claimed the
U.S. Intelligence Community had access to more
evidence of UAPs than has been released as part
of the Pentagon's push to bring the issue out in
the open. One former Air Force officer claimed
that U.S. officials had access to "non-human"
craft, something that the Pentagon has denied.
And
while Chinese Embassy to the United States
spokesperson Liu Pengyu said he had no
"specific" response to the U.S. debate over
UAPs, commonly referred to as "unidentified
flying objects" (UFOs), he stated "as principle"
that "outer space is an important field for
win-win cooperation."
"The
exploration and peaceful uses of outer space is
humanity's common endeavor and should benefit
all," Liu told Newsweek.
"China is committed to the peaceful uses of
outer space, security of outer space and
extensive cooperation with all countries. China
also welcomes progress by more countries in this
area."
In
January of this year, the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence also published a
long-anticipated report regarding UAPs, some of which
have been observed in the Asia-Pacific region, a
central focus of U.S.-China tensions.
Among
the duties of the AARO is "evaluating links between
unidentified aerial phenomena and adversarial foreign
governments, other foreign governments, or nonstate
actors." In an April testimony before Congress, AARO
Director Sean Kirkpatrick highlighted the potential
connection between some UAP sightings and the possible
capability of foreign governments, such as China, to
wield assets unknown to the U.S.
Days
before the hearing, U.S. intelligence leaked to
Discord revealed an assessment that China was
preparing to deploy a high-altitude supersonic spy
drone known as the WZ-8 capable of traveling three
times the speed of sound. Chinese researchers had
previously attested to an even more ambitious hypersonic
drone program in the works.
Newsweek has
reached out to the Pentagon and U.S.-Indo Pacific
Command for comment.
UAP-related
issues have already served to drive tensions between
Beijing and Washington. In a widely viewed slow-motion
episode, the U.S. military tracked and shot down a
Chinese high-altitude balloon that had flown over U.S.
airspace and was suspected of having surveillance
capabilities. The Pentagon later said the balloon did
not collect information while transiting over the U.S.
and China repeatedly alleged it was an unmanned
civilian airship tasked with weather research that had
gone astray.
During
this same timeframe, another Chinese balloon was
observed over Latin America, and the U.S. shot down
three more unidentified objects over U.S. and Canadian
airspace that were not tied directly to the Chinese
balloon incursions. Amid these events, Chinese state
media reported that Chinese authorities were preparing
to shoot down an unknown object flying over the
Shandong province, near the Yellow Sea, though no
further details were released.
The
Chinese balloon incident prompted U.S. Secretary of
State Antony
Blinken to cancel a planned trip to
Beijing, worsening U.S.-China tensions at a time when
communications between the U.S. Armed Forces and the
People's Liberation Army were
already frozen as a result of
then-House Speak Nancy
Pelosi's visit
to the disputed island of Taiwan last
August. The dialogue remained stalled even after
Blinken ultimately traveled to China in June, with
Chinese officials calling on the U.S. to do more to
respect China's claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and
the South China Sea.
Cooperation
between Beijing and Washington in outer space is even
more tenuous. The 2011 Wolf Amendment passed by
Congress bans NASA from
using government funds to engage in bilateral
cooperation with China without explicit permission
from the FBI.
Calls
for fostering
cooperation between the two powers
in this field have so far proven fruitless as tensions
between them increased over the past decade, even as
China's own space program made new strides.
President Joe
Biden's administration has sought to discuss
arms control in outer space with Beijing as efforts to
establish non-proliferation dialogue elsewhere have
failed, with China arguing that both the U.S. and
Russia alone bore a special responsibility to limit
their far larger nuclear arsenals. But the U.S. has
also opposed a longstanding proposal by both China and
Russia to ban weapons in outer space, contending that
their suggested treaty did not go far enough to
address outstanding issues that include verification;
the development, possession and testing of such
platforms; and the use of terrestrial anti-satellite
missiles.
The
U.S. State Department has also taken
issue with the phrase "a common
shared future for humankind," considered to be linked
to Chinese President Xi
Jinping's Communist Party ideology that is
unsuited for arms control measures. Chinese officials
have defended the language, saying it has "won wide
support of the U.N. member states and is consistent
with the aspirations of the international community to
defend common security in outer space."