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The primary responsible behavior in space should have superpowers to promise not to seek hegemony, nor dominate the outer space, a senior Chinese diplomat said, elaborating China's views on how to protect space security and avoid arms race in space.

Though the Cold War has been over for 30 years already, some individual countries still stick with the Cold War mentality and seek unilateral strategic advantages in space, which brings severe negative impact on global strategic stability and long-lasting threat on space peace, Li Song, China's ambassador for disarmament affairs, said.

From a historical and practical point of view, the origin of the arms race in outer space lies in the attempts of superpowers to dominate outer space, that's like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the outer space, Li said.

Li said that no country should engage in great power competition, bloc politics and camp confrontation in space, instead, countries should uphold the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind and respond to threats to space security through cooperation.

Whether or not to support the negotiation of a new outer space control treaty is the touchstone for measuring whether a country's outer space behavior is responsible, Li noted.

He also highlighted that the security and peaceful use of space should be balanced among countries and excuses such as ideological prejudice, double standards and unilateral sanctions, security threats should not be used to hinder the peaceful use of outer space by other countries.

The Chinese ambassador said the will of a few countries should not be imposed on others in the rule-making process of space, emphasizing multilateralism and comprehensive coordination among countries and UN rules.

On US' recent announcement on stopping the destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests, Li said China welcomes any arms control initiative that is truly conducive to the prevention of arms race in space, but opposes any attempt to expand unilateral military advantage in the name of arms control.

However, the US initiative does not mention the research and development, deployment and use of weapons, nor activities that threaten and disrupt normal operation of satellites, which makes it inadequate to respond to problems.

Treaty on Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space and of the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (draft), jointly proposed by China and Russia, addresses space security in a brief and effective way. How to solve direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests is included within the draft, Li said.

Li called on the countries to stop blocking the negotiation of the outer space control treaty for various reasons and join the negotiation process in a responsible manner.

Global Times