Jinping ceremony
President Xi Jinping (center) transfers a military flag to Gao Jin (left) and Liu Fulian, commander and political commissar, respectively, of the PLA Strategic Support Force, at an inauguration ceremony in Beijing on Dec. 31. Credit: Chinese Ministry of National Defense

The Defense Intelligence Agency warned in January 2019 that China likely will field in 2020 a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit space-based sensors. By the mid-to-late 2020s it may field higher power systems that could damage the structures of non-optical satellites.

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Brian Chow (Ph.D. in physics, MBA with distinction, Ph.D. in finance) is an independent policy analyst with more than 180 publications.

Henry Sokolski is executive director of The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Arlington, Virginia, and served as Deputy for Nonproliferation Policy in the Cheney Pentagon.