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In light of the news that the US is objecting to China shooting a defunct satellite out of orbit, it is interesting to note that the accusation of China militarising Space rings hollow when we look at the US stance on efforts to prevent the buildup of arms in Space. The US is (by it's actions) seeking to be the only power to have dominance of space - and has actively taken steps to prevent treaties being drawn up ... the following are extracts from Noam Chomsky's 'Hegemony or survival : America's quest for global dominance'

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The year 2003 opened with many indications that concerns about human survival are all too realistic. To mention just a few examples, in the early fall of 2002 it was learned that a possibly terminal nuclear war was barely avoided forty years earlier. Immediately after this startling discovery, the Bush administration blocked UN efforts to ban the militarization of space, a serious threat to survival. The administration also terminated international negotiations to prevent biological warfare and moved to ensure the inevitability of an attack on Iraq, despite popular opposition that was without historical precedent.

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For such reasons, the US has refused to join the rest of the world in reaffirming and strengthening the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 to reserve space for peaceful purposes. The concern for such action, articulated in UN resolutions calling for "Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space," is motivated by widespread recognition that Washington intends to breach this barrier, so far maintained. The US was joined in its abstention in 1999 by Israel, in 2000 by Micronesia as well. As noted earlier, immediately after it was learned that the world had barely been saved from a war that might have "destroyed the Northern Hemisphere," the Bush administration effectively vetoed yet another international effort to prevent the militarization of space. For the same reasons, Washington blocked negotiations at the UN Conference on Disarmament during the sessions that opened in January 2001, rejecting the call of Secretary-General Kofi Annan that member states overcome their lack of "political will" and work toward a comprehensive accord to bar militarization of space. "The U.S. remains the only one of the 66 member states to oppose launching formal negotiations on outer space," Reuters reported in February. In June, China again called for banning of weapons in outer space, but the US again blocked negotiations.
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The Bush administration announced that "it has no objections to [China's] plans to build up its small fleet of nuclear missiles," shifting policy in the hope of gaining Chinese acquiescence to the planned dismantling of core arms control agreements. For similar reasons, Clinton negotiators had encouraged Russia to adopt a launch-on-warning strategy, a proposal that nuclear experts regarded as "pretty bizarre" because we know that Russia's deteriorating warning systems are "full of holes" and prone to false alerts, increasing the "threat of Russian unauthorized, accidental, and erroneous launches." Chinese resumption of nuclear testing was also being quietly endorsed, it was reported.

Strategic analysts pointed out that this change of policy would encourage China to aim more nuclear-armed missiles at the US and Japan, with the expected effect on Japanese and Taiwanese programs. At the same time, the press reported that the US would impose sanctions on China for allowing the transfer to Pakistan of "missile parts and technology that are essentially for weapons that can carry nuclear warheads."7 All "pretty bizarre," if security is a highly valued concern. Missile defense and other military programs of the Bush administration are "inherently provocative" to Russia and China, John Stein-bruner and Jeffrey Lewis point out. Like other strategic analysts, they describe the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty signed by Bush and Putin in May 2002 as mostly for show: it "will not meaningfully diminish the lethal potential of either nation's nuclear force." Nor will it establish a stable strategic balance: "the deteriorating Russian arsenal will become increasingly vulnerable to preemptive attack, particularly as the United States undertakes planned modernization of nuclear forces and the deployment of missile defenses"—probably driving Russia to react in turn, as later reports indicate. China also recognizes US programs to be a direct threat to its minimal deterrent force, and is likely to readjust priorities from economic development to defense. China was particularly alarmed, Steinbruner and Lewis write, by a 1998 long-range planning document of the US Space Command outlining a new concept of "global engagement," including "space-based strike capabilities" that would allow the US to attack any country and to "deny similar capability to any other countries," another Clinton-era precursor to the National Security Strategy of September 2002.

The UN Conference on Disarmament has been deadlocked since 1998 by China's insistence on maintaining the use of space for peaceful means and Washington's refusal to agree, alienating many allies and creating conditions for confrontation.