China Wants Data from Missile Strike

First China denounces US actions to shoot down the spy satellite. Now it wants data from the strike so urrr...ummm...uhhhh...it can take appropriate precautions.

What kind of precautions? Precautions from the satellite debris or precautions to America's defense shield?

BEIJING — China said Thursday it was on the alert for possible harmful fallout from the U.S. shoot down of an ailing spy satellite and urged Washington to promptly release data about the action.

The comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry came several hours after the Pentagon said a missile launched from a Navy cruiser soared 130 miles above the Pacific Ocean and smashed a dying and potentially dangerous U.S. spy satellite. Two U.S. officials said it apparently achieved the main aim of destroying an onboard tank of toxic fuel.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China was "continuously following closely the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries."

....

"China requests the U.S. to fulfill its international obligations in real earnest and provide to the international community necessary information and relevant data in a timely and prompt way so that relevant countries can take precautions," Liu said at a regularly scheduled news conference.

A spokesman for China's Defense Ministry, who identified himself only by his surname, Ji, said the ministry would not comment on the shoot down.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported the shoot down without further comment.

However, a commentary Thursday in the overseas edition of the Communist Party's official newspaper, People's Daily, attacked the U.S. for insisting the satellite shoot down was not a military act, while opposing a recent Russian-Chinese proposal on demilitarizing space.

"While the U.S. hedged in its explanations, it wasn't hard for people to hear the subtext: The U.S. will not easily relinquish its military advantage based on space technology and will endeavor to expand and fully utilize this advantage," said the commentary, which made no mention of China's own anti-satellite weapons test.