SpaceWar.com reports: “China’s military capabilities in space are developing at a ‘breathtaking’ pace that only looks set to intensify after recent defence reforms, the head of the US Space Command said Wednesday.

General Stephen Whiting told journalists that Beijing had ‘tripled the number of intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance satellites on orbit’ in just six years, with repercussions across military domains.

‘Frankly, the People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities,’ Whiting said.

Describing China as the United States’ top ‘pacing challenge’, Whiting said Beijing had used ‘space capabilities to improve the lethality, the precision and the range of their terrestrial forces’.

China’s leaders had underscored future space ambitions with recent military reforms, he added…”