US military wants its money fix

This file photo taken on Dec 4, 2019 shows a view of the Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the US. [Photo/Xinhua]

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The United States' military has a habit. It is in constant need of a fix. And it has repeatedly shown that it will say or do anything, without any shame or qualms, to satisfy its craving. The US already has the most powerful military, yet the US top brass are constantly hyping up external threats to try and get more money for their buzz-giver of choice.

This time, it is Stephen Whiting, head of the US Space Command, who has sounded the alarm over what he perceives as China's rapid advancement in space technology, warning of the potential threats he alleges it poses to the US' interests in outer space.

Speaking before the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Whiting set off a siren about China's "breathtaking" progress in military space technology and counter-space capabilities, which he claimed are aimed at denying the US and its allies access to space assets when necessary. By 2030, he cautioned lawmakers, China will have reached "world-class status in all but a few space technology areas".

Whiting didn't bother to hide the addiction motivating such scaremongering, claiming there was "an urgency for our Command to advocate for delivery of new space capabilities and capacity to retain an enduring competitive advantage" in the space domain.

His playing up of a military threat from China was echoed at the same event by Anthony Cotton, head of the US Strategic Command. The purpose of their hustling, as was evident, was to get cash, and lots of it, in order to modernize the US nuclear triad capabilities, that is its ability to strike from the land, sea and air, a mammoth project expected to ultimately cost $1.5 trillion over the next 30 years. Their unfounded scaremongering was a textbook US military hustle that played to the gallery of their sponsors' bias. Their pantomime portrayal of China as the villain of their story is risible because contrary to their money-tapping tall tales, no country has posed a more serious threat to other countries' security in space than the US.

The country has in recent years taken significant actions — such as establishing the US Space Force as a new military wing and setting up the US Space Command as a unified combatant command — to accelerate its militarization of space. It is also actively deploying offensive weapons in space and conducting military exercises and technical experiments there. Such moves undermine world peace and stability and risk triggering an arms race in space.

Belying their budget-badgering scare stories, China has advocated the peaceful use of space and opposed a space arms race. It has called on countries to work together to build a community of shared future in space and to carry out in-depth exchanges and cooperation for the mutually beneficial utilization of outer space. It has actively promoted talks on an arms control treaty on outer space, and cosponsored related United Nations General Assembly resolutions such as No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. Facts show that China has remained a stabilizing force, rather than a threat as claimed by the US, and it is the leading advocate for cooperative space utilization and exploration for the common security and well-being of humankind.

The US should abandon its Cold War mentality, follow the trend of the times, and join China and other countries in the efforts to preserve space as a global commons, where all countries share broad common interests. Space should be an exciting new frontier for cooperation rather than a battlefield for falsely fear-fueled confrontation.