The Telegraph’s Richard Spencer chews on the New York Times story that suggests the US may be doubtful of Chinese leadership’s witting-ness of the anti-satellite missile test (photo from Reuters via the blog):
In particular, I am referring to the Bush administration’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, who asks: “The question on something like this is, at what level in the Chinese government are people witting, and have they approved?”
The more I think about it, the more extraordinary these words appear to be. Others I have discussed it with agree. Let’s think about it. Mr Hadley, on the face of it, is suggesting that the Chinese military conducted this rather important test without the full approval of the political leadership, including Hu Jintao, who, as well as being president of the country and general secretary of the communist party, is also head of the military commission: commander-in-chief, in other words. [Full Text]
– Spencer’s blog post yesterday:
… So why did they knock out this satellite? I think the simplest reasons are best: to make sure they could, and to make sure everyone knew they could. Is any other explanation necessary?
