China criticizes U.S. satellite strike

BEIJING, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- Chinese leaders Thursday took a dim view of the United States using its missile prowess to destroy an orbiting disabled U.S. spy satellite.

The Chinese government called on the U.S. government to provide relevant data about the Wednesday night missile shot, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said his country was monitoring for any possible fallout, The Guardian reported.

"The Chinese side is continuing to closely follow the U.S. action, which may influence the security of outer space and may harm other countries," he said.

The British newspaper also reported that the Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, said Chinese officials noted the United States was among those criticizing China when it shot down one of its own satellites last year.

"The United States, the world's top space power, has often accused other countries of vigorously developing military space technology," the People's Daily said. "But faced with the Chinese-Russian proposal to restrict space armaments, it runs in fear from what it claimed to love."

The Chinese action, however, was also criticized because of orbiting debris created by the satellite's destruction, which could damage spacecraft. The U.S. satellite was destroyed as it began re-entering the Earth's atmosphere so as not to affect orbiting spacecraft, U.S. officials said.