Trump, Xi Jinping prepare for summit as Beijing pushes back on US space militarization claims

The Pentagon just told the world it has weapons in orbit. China’s response was roughly what you’d expect. On September 15, US Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink confirmed the deployment of “on-orbit space control weapons” during a conference, marking the first time a Pentagon official has publicly acknowledged the United States has active military capabilities stationed in space. The timing, about a week before President Donald Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, is either spectacularly poor or spectacularly deliberate. China fires back, diplomatically speaking Beijing didn’t wait long. The day after Meink’s remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun called on the US to halt its military expansion beyond Earth’s atmosphere. He framed the disclosure as destabilizing, warning it could trigger an arms race in a domain where no one really wants one. That summit is now set for September 23-24 in the US, where Trump and Xi are expected to discuss trade, artificial intelligence, and ongoing technology restrictions. The agenda was supposed to signal a thaw following a May summit in Beijing. Instead, the conversation about orbital weapons has turned the diplomatic ...