China’s Nukes in Space and the Assassin’s Mace

We Chinese will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian [in central China]. Of course, the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds of their cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.

—Major General Zhu Chenghu, People’s Liberation Army

Many peace-loving people in Europe and the United States find it hard to imagine that China—or any other country for that matter—would actually deploy offensive nuclear weapons in space. This would be a clear violation of the world’s international space treaty as well as an affront to all human decency. However, since the days of Sun Tzu, deception has been a Chinese military strategy of choice—a strategy designed to surprise potential enemies and force them into an immediate surrender with minimal conflict.

That this is a legitimate concern is evident in the writings of two colonels from China’s National Defense University, both of whom are active officers in the People’s Liberation Army. For his part, Colonel Jai Junming in his 2002 book, Space Operations, has strongly advocated building offensive space weapons platforms that he refers to as “assassin’s maces.” Colonel Li Daguang has similarly urged the People’s Liberation Army to develop both defensive and offensive weapons in space.

It would certainly be reassuring to imagine that these Chinese officers are simply academic daydreamers exploring far beyond the boundaries of actual Chinese military policy and thought. However, similar statements from Chinese military analysts accurately foreshadowed China’s kinetic kill vehicle ASAT test in 2007.

As for concerns about China’s possible “nukes in space,” many experts have suggested that China’s ambitious manned space program is a thinly veiled dual-use military platform. Supporting this contention is the fact that each secretive Shenzhou spacecraft is fully capable of leaving behind an 8 foot by 9 foot orbital module that contains a nuclear bomb.

Again, the words of Colonel Li Daguang are instructive regarding the secretive nature of such a deployment: “Considering certain constraints from the international society, the construction of such a unit should be carried out secretly by keeping a low profile.”

Should China secretly and successfully deploy a string of nuclear weapons in space, these space swords of Damocles would be ready to drop on American targets with virtually no notice. Unlike ICBMs that are launched from land or sea by powerful rockets, orbital war-heads could simply be “nudged” down with no telltale boost-phase infrared flare. Already at the top of their trajectory, they avoid a slow ascent phase and arrive on target quickly and probably quite unexpectedly. Consequently, they would be virtually unstoppable by existing American, European, Russian, or Israeli missile defense systems.

Again, for the doubters, there are the words of another one of China’s own military strategists, Zhao Ruian. Zhao strongly advocates a multi-role orbital A-bomb. This “new-concept strategic ballistic missile” would be “a multi-task, multi-role attack weapon capable of implementing random orbit transfer from Earth orbits and can serve the function of an intercontinental ballistic missile, an anti-satellite weapon, and an orbital bomber weapon.”