US attempts to militarize Moon threaten humanity — Chinese newspaper

TASS

BEIJING, September 18. /TASS/. The US government’s attempts to militarize near-lunar space threaten the security of all countries, the Chinese newspaper Global Times writes.

"By explicitly bringing the lunar vicinity into its battlefield conceptualization, coupled with Washington's public acknowledgment that it has deployed on-orbit space weapons, senior US military officials are sending a highly aggressive and dangerous signal," the publication’s editorial states. "The old script of bloc-confrontation on Earth is now being played out on the Moon," it emphasizes.

The authors note that the US established the Space Force in 2019 and, in 2025, unveiled the Golden Dome space-based missile defense program. "As a signatory to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, the US should uphold its spirit: Celestial objects such as the moon are to be used ‘exclusively for peaceful purposes,’ nuclear weapons cannot be placed in space and countries are ‘liable for damage caused by their space objects,’" the article says.

"Yet Washington has taken the lead in setting up an independent Space Force, publicly acknowledged the deployment of offensive space weapons, and continuously extended its operational concepts toward lunar orbit," the newspaper writes. "Such repeated crossing of regulatory red lines seriously undermines outer-space governance," it says.

The publication points out that Washington "seeks to justify such military buildup by pointing fingers at other countries: ‘maintaining unmatched space superiority is a top military priority, as adversaries such as China and Russia make massive investments in space weapons and other capabilities that can threaten American satellites.’" "Such logic of proactively stoking confrontation poses grave dangers for global security," the authors note.

Threat to humanity

The newspaper cites the opinion of an unnamed expert who believes that US officials are deliberately exaggerating external threats in order to increase defense spending. "Driven by dual strategic calculations both domestically and internationally, the US is seeking unrestrained space hegemony," the article emphasizes. "As it continues to expand its Space Force, Washington is planning to deploy various new weapons systems in space, aiming to transform the realm of deep-space exploration into a frontline of military rivalry among major powers; America's military adventurism is bound to fuel a global space arms race."

"Once the Earth-Moon space becomes a theater of confrontation, no country's space assets will be able to remain unscathed. Once the fuse of an arms race is lit, the destruction brought about by the risk of war will be borne by the entire world," the authors warn.

The article emphasizes that humanity's journey into space is driven by scientific progress. "It should not be reduced to a powder keg for great-power rivalry. The US is mired in numerous governance challenges," the article says. "Instead of working to resolve its own problems, it is inciting an arms race, going so far as to push the Earth-Moon space toward militarization. Such hysterical hegemonic impulses are spreading the risk of instability across the globe."

The authors note that, in the interests of all humanity, the US must "stop fueling fantasies of space warfare and return to the path of peaceful exploration in outer space." "Space is not the private property of any single country, and lunar orbit certainly should not become the next battlefield," they emphasize.

Earlier, General Dan Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth's orbit but around the Moon.

Fonte: TASS