Chin's threat to the U.S. is not going away.

As usual Bill Gertz provides a unique and "insider" perspective to the Chinese threat.

Perhaps an overlooked element to the recent ASAT news is that China attempted to kill a satellite on three other occasions. It also appears that on those unsuccessful attempts they again did not notify the U.S. Not until SEVERAL DAYS after the explosion was reported in the popular media did China acknowledge the ASAT kill.

Officials fear war in space by China
By Bill Gertz

U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports said yesterday that three previous tests were unsuccessful

China's anti-satellite-interceptor test Jan. 11 is part of a covert space-weapons program designed to cripple the U.S. military in a conflict

"The ASAT test showed they are not following us [militarily] but trying to leap ahead," one defense official said.

China also illuminated a U.S. satellite with a ground-based laser in another anti-satellite test, according to a report by the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The report, produced by defense analyst Michael Pillsbury, revealed that China has plans for secret space weapons that include ground-based lasers, air-to-space missile interceptors and an exotic plasma bomb that would destroy orbiting satellites by enveloping them in an electronic cloud. The report also stated that three books written by Chinese colonels in 2001, 2002 and 2005 contain "proposals for covert deployment of antisatellite weapons directed at U.S. assets."
One author, Col. Jia Junming, stated in his 2002 book that Chinese space-weapons development should be covert and "intense internally but relaxed in external appearance to maintain our good international image and position."

The 2005 book, "Joint Space War Campaigns," by Col. Yuan Zelu, calls for deploying an orbiting network of strike weapons that "will be concealed and launched only in a crisis or emergency" to "bring the opponent to his knees."