China has called on the United States to halt the militarization of outer space after Washington publicly acknowledged for the first time that it has operational weapons deployed in Earth orbit, marking a significant escalation in the growing strategic competition between the world’s leading space powers.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing remains committed to the peaceful use of outer space and opposes any effort to turn space into a battlefield or trigger an arms race beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
“China has consistently advocated the peaceful use of outer space and safeguarding security in space,” Guo told reporters in Beijing. “We oppose any arms race in outer space and any attempt to weaponize space or transform it into a war zone.” He urged Washington to take “concrete actions” to preserve global strategic stability.
The comments came after US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink disclosed that the US Space Force has deployed operational “space control weapons” capable of defending US and allied forces from hostile actions in orbit. It is the first public confirmation by a senior US official that such systems are operationally deployed in space.
Meink did not reveal the nature, number, or deployment timeline of the weapons, saying details remain classified to protect their deterrence value. He said the systems are designed to counter threats from rival powers and ensure the United States can operate freely in space, which he described as critical to both national security and the global economy.
The disclosure highlights intensifying competition between the United States, China, and Russia in space, where military and intelligence activities have expanded rapidly in recent years. Western officials have repeatedly accused Beijing and Moscow of developing anti-satellite capabilities, while China has criticized Washington for accelerating the militarization of space through the expansion of the US Space Force and advanced orbital defense programs.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit but does not explicitly ban conventional weapons in space. That legal gap has fueled growing concerns among arms-control experts that countries could increasingly deploy offensive or defensive military systems in orbit without violating existing international agreements.
China has repeatedly proposed new international agreements to prevent the weaponization of outer space, while the United States has argued that it must maintain credible defensive capabilities to protect satellites and space infrastructure from emerging threats.
