China warns the US to prepare to lose an arms race in space

If the United States and China are on a war footing in space, one of the People's Republic's top generals has some tough talk for the U.S.: Be prepared to lose. Maj. Gen. Qiao Liang, is a top general in China's air force and recently co-authored a book called "Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America." In it, he warns the United States that they could not outspend a wealthy, organized, and manufacturing-oriented Chinese economy.

Retired People's Liberation Army Air Force Maj. Gen. Qiao Liang.

"China is not the Soviet Union," Qiao the South China Morning Post. "If the United States thinks it can also drag China into an arms race and take down China as it did with the Soviets … in the end, probably it would not be China who is down on the ground."

At the same time, China and the United States are in competition for space dominance. The Pentagon believes China is developing directed-energy weapons for use in the vacuum of space, and the United States is creating its sixth branch of military service, focused solely on a space mission. China has had such a program for the past four years. Now, both countries seem to be preparing to fight a war in space rather than avoid one.

Artists' Rendering.

General Qiao Liang says China is not seeking such a war but is asserting itself and its right to national defense. Its biggest asset at the moment is its economic and manufacturing superiority, a position Qiao says will leave it as the winner of an expensive space race with the world's only superpower.

"When the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in the Cold War and the arms race, the United States was the largest manufacturing country, and the Soviet Union was not even the second," he said. "But today it is China who is the world's top manufacturer."