By Andrew Gray
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is developing weapons that would disable its enemies' space technology such as satellites in a conflict, the Pentagon said in a report released on Monday.
The report also said "numerous" intrusions into computer networks around the world, including some owned by the U.S. government, in the past year seem to have originated in China.
The assessments feature in an annual report on China's military power by the Pentagon for the U.S. Congress. Beijing routinely criticizes the report, saying it unfairly portrays China as a military threat when it is committed to peace.
David Sedney, a top Pentagon China specialist, said there was no call for U.S. alarm over China but repeated a frequent U.S. complaint that Beijing has not made clear the reasons for its rapid military modernization and spending growth.
"I think the biggest thing for people to be concerned about really is the fact that we don't have that kind of strategic understanding of the Chinese intentions," said Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.
"That leads to uncertainty," he said, briefing journalists at the Pentagon on the latest report.
China has posted a string of double-digit percentage rises in military spending in the past decade and many analysts say Beijing understates the amount it spends.
However, even the highest estimates of the true figure are dwarfed by U.S. defense spending. Continued...
The Chinese Space Agency transporting a rocket assemblage in 2007.
The United States Pentagon submitted a report to Congress on Monday, detailing the Chinese Space Agency's focus on developing means for "space warfare". 
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The Pentagon claims that China has been "exploring" laser, microwave, particle beam and electromagnetic pulse weapons, and suggests that China has been "developing the ability to attack an adversary's space assets," and would be able to disable or destroy enemy satellites. Such an offensive could be used to "blind and deafen the enemy" prior to an attack, according to the study.

The Pentagon analysis was released the same day that Yang Baohua, head of the Academy of Space Technology, announced that testing of a new EVA spacesuit and airlock had been successfully completed. The two units are being developed for China's first intended spacewalk as part of Shenzhou 7, one of ten Chinese spacecraft being launched this year.

The move has caused aerospace analyst Jeff Foust to declare that "a full-fledged space race" has been gearing up between China and the United States.

In September, NASA administrator Mike Griffin caused waves when he suggested that China is more likely to put the next man on the moon than the United States, suggesting that "Americans will not like it," but that nothing could be done about it.