China Reacts to Trump's 'Golden Dome' Missile Shield

China said it is "gravely concerned" by U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" anti-missile defense system and urged him to abandon the project.

Why It Matters

American military leaders have consistently warned that nations like China and Russia are developing advanced missile technologies that outpace existing U.S. defenses. Golden Dome is intended to close that gap.

What To Know

"This highly offensive system violates the principle of peaceful use of outer space," said Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, at a press briefing on Wednesday morning.

"It will exacerbate the risk of turning outer space into a battlefield and starting an arms race, and shake the international security and arms control system."

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Space Force for comment via a media contact form outside of normal business hours.

Trump's Golden Dome Fulfills Reagan's 'Star Wars'

Trump has unveiled his administration's preferred concept for the Golden Dome program—a sprawling $175-billion initiative that will mark the first time the U.S. deploys weapons in space.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said he expects the system to be "fully operational before the end of my term," which ends in 2029, and claimed it would be capable of intercepting missiles "even if they are launched from space."

President Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" program, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), was a proposed missile defense system announced in 1983 during the Cold War.

The initiative aimed to protect the United States from nuclear missile attacks—particularly from the Soviet Union—by using space-based technologies, such as lasers and satellite-mounted interceptors, to detect and destroy incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles before they reached U.S. soil.

Although the idea captured public imagination and reshaped the global arms debate, SDI faced heavy criticism for being technologically unfeasible and prohibitively expensive at the time.

"We'll truly be completing the job President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the homeland," Trump said.

China: US Obsessed With Absolute Security

China and Russia have put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical U.S. satellites, which can make the U.S. vulnerable to attack.

"The U.S., by putting itself first, and being obsessed with pursuing absolute security, violates the principle of, and diminishes, the security for all and undermines the global strategic balance and stability," China's Mao said.

"China is gravely concerned about this.

"We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying the global anti-missile system at an early date and take concrete actions to enhance strategic mutual trust between major countries and safeguard global strategic stability."

Golden Dome Space Weapons Answer China Threat

Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: Detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.

For the last several months, Pentagon planners have been developing options—which the U.S. official described as medium, high and "extra high" choices, based on their cost—that include space-based interceptors.

The difference in the three versions is largely based on how many satellites and sensors—and for the first time, space-based interceptors—would be purchased.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the program in his proposed tax break bill now moving through Congress.

The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary.

Golden Dome's added satellites and interceptors—where the bulk of the program's cost is—would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.

The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome "represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations," General Chance Saltzman, head of the U.S. Space Force, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.