China reaffirms its missile interception test defensive

BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's missile interception test Monday accorded with its defensive military strategy, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu on Tuesday.

China conducted a test on ground-based midcourse missile interception technology within its territory on Monday.

"The test was defensive in nature and targeted at no country," said Jiang, adding it was in line with the defensive national defense policy that China had always pursued.

China had always taken the road of peaceful development and its strengthening of national defense construction was for the maintenance of national sovereignty and security, she said.

The test would neither produce space debris in orbit nor pose a threat to the safety of orbiting spacecraft.

A web survey of the Global Times showed that about 98.8 percent voters supported China's self-developed anti-missile system, with only 0.4 percent voting against it.

China has always pursued a defensive military strategy and the development of its missile defense system has not changed but reinforced this national strategy, said Jin Canrong, associate dean with the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, in an interview with the Global Times.