China urges US to 'stop preparing for war in outer space'

China urged the United States on Tuesday to "stop preparing for war" in space, after the US Space Force confirmed it had deployed weapons into orbit for the first time.

Beijing and Washington are key geopolitical rivals and have long sought to expand their interests -- and strategic footprints -- in space.

The US Space Force said on Monday that it had deployed "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending... against hostile adversary action", without providing specifics.

China's foreign ministry opposed the move, warning against the "weaponisation of outer space, turning it into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there".

"We urge the US side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space," ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing.

The US Space Force singled out China as a threat in its announcement, saying Beijing "develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy".

It also named Russia, another geopolitical rival, which it said "believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts".

The militarisation of space is as old as the space race itself -- as soon as the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to both arm and destroy such spacecraft.

The biggest worry was once about nuclear weapons in space, but the superpowers and other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, banning weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Since then, the United States, China, Russia and India have explored ways to fight in space outside of that treaty, including by targeting rivals' satellites, which are key for military communications, surveillance and navigation.