US Unprepared for Potential Space Conflict With China, Says Bill Gertz

Bill Gertz, a national security columnist for the Washington Times and senior editor of the Washington Free Beacon, in Washington on Sep. 23, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

“The Chinese could cripple the United States—not just the military, but the entire U.S. society” with a surprise attack on America’s satellites, according to Bill Gertz, a national security columnist for the Washington Times and Senior Editor of the Washington Free Beacon.

China has built anti-satellite missiles and other weapons that make it capable of “severely disrupting or destroying” U.S. satellites in low earth orbit by 2020, according to the Pentagon’s Joint Staff intelligence directorate. America heavily relies on satellites for communications, transportation, finance, and military data collection.

Space weaponry is just one aspect of the Chinese communist regime’s multifaceted doctrine of unrestricted warfare—using a series of unconventional tactics to defeat a more powerful foe, the United States, without engaging in troop-on-troop combat.

Gertz details these diverse strategies and tactics in his new book “Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy.” The book highlights how, in Gertz’ eyes, the Chinese communist regime hoodwinked U.S. leaders into adopting a policy of engagement with China. But behind the scenes, the Chinese regime stole trade secrets, infiltrated and subverted the United States, and secretly developed powerful “assassins mace” weaponry, which are used by an inferior military to gain a military advantage.

“The United States faces a major strategic vulnerability in its satellites,” Gertz said in an interview with The Epoch Times for the “American Thought Leaders” program.

The US has “as few as 30 anti-satellite missiles or ground-based lasers or orbiting killer robot satellites,” Gertz said. “China would conduct a surprise attack on the United States, and one of the first things they would do would be to disable the missile warning satellites that we have.”

“And by using a combination of deception and laser attacks, they could take out a satellite and then successfully conduct a surprise strategic missile strike, kind of what I describe as a global Pearl Harbor.”

Developing space weaponry is just one part of a much broader offensive against the United States, as the Chinese communist regime seeks to amass power globally, according to the White House National Security Strategy. Beijing is seeking to corner the market on 5G, the next generation of communications technology, and also expand its global dominance through initiatives like Belt and Road, “a Trojan horse of Chinese expansionism,” Gertz said.

“They will tell these poor developing countries: ‘We'd like to build a railroad for you as part of infrastructure development,” Gertz said. “They lend the money at an exorbitant interest rate, and when the country can’t pay the debt, the Chinese will then come in and say, well, that railroad is now ours.”

“And in this way, they are literally buying up and taking over countries,” Gertz said.

A Disastrous Gamble

Since the 1980s, Chinese communist leaders deceived American leaders, Gertz said, into believing that by engaging with communist China, China would evolve into a more benign and democratic power. But “this gamble has been an utter disaster,” Gertz said.