National Security: As the world focuses on North Korea and Iran, China continues its massive military expansion. As part of the buildup, it's testing laser weapons - on American spy satellites.

According to a report in the military affairs publication Defense News, China has conducted tests involving high-powered ground-based lasers, firing them at U.S. spy satellites flying over its territory.

The tests are part of a Chinese goal of developing "asymmetrical" warfare capabilities designed to neutralize any technological and quantitative advantage the U.S. might have. In any future conflict with the U.S., such as regarding the defense of Taiwan, the ability to blind our eyes in space would be critical to Chinese plans.

As Operation Iraqi Freedom began in March 2003, six American high-resolution imaging satellites maintained a constant watch over Iraq, aiding the rapid advance of coalition forces. They included three Keyhole satellites with infrared and optical cameras and three LaCrosse radar satellites able to scan for targets day or night, rain or shine.

These and other observation, global positioning and communications satellites are part of the U.S. strategy for maintaining battlefield supremacy. In a showdown over Taiwan, they could pinpoint the location of every missile and launcher targeted on the island.

In the 2006 edition of its annual report to Congress, "Military Power of the People's Republic of China," the Pentagon notes that "Beijing continues to pursue an offensive anti-satellite system." At least one of the satellite attack systems, it says, "appears to be a ground-based laser designed to damage or blind imaging satellites."

Rather than trying to match us tank for tank or microchip for microchip, China plans to deny us full use of our capabilities, according to the Pentagon's analysis, by fielding "disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional U.S. military advantages."

Shortly before the launch of China's Shenzhou 5 manned spacecraft in October 2003, Lt. Col. Mark Stokes, director of the Taiwan desk at the Pentagon, gave a speech noting the close link between China's space program and its military.

China, according to Stokes, has shown "significant indications" of developing space weapons, such as satellite-killing missiles, lasers and satellites that would disable U.S. satellites that are the eyes, ears and communication link for our high-tech military. Stokes observed that China's "space assets will play a major role in any use of force against Taiwan and in preventing foreign intervention."

The use of nanosatellites - small satellites designed specifically to disable American satellites - is also being pursued by the Chinese. In 2004, China successfully test-launched such a satellite, developed by the PLA-run Qinghua University. The satellite weighed all of 55 pounds and, according to Richard Fisher, a defense analyst at the Center for Security Policy, was part of a
Chinese army space program.

Fisher states that China is developing "new mobile, solid-fueled vehicles" that can launch such satellites on a moment's notice and "target geosynchronous and polar orbits, where many sensitive U.S. military satellites reside."

No official confirmation of the Chinese laser tests has come from the Pentagon, but no denial has come either. The U.S. has developed its own ground and airborne laser weapons, and space-based versions were envisioned as part of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.

As Capt. Shen Zhong of the Chinese Navy Research Institute recently said: "The mastery of outer space will be requisite for military victory, with outer space becoming the new venue for combat."

But victory for which side?