China invented fireworks some 1,000 years ago in hopes of scaring away evil spirits. On Monday, January 11, it successfully tested a missile-defense system. By shooting down one missile with another, China demonstrated its growing military prowess. But it also telegraphed its anger over last week's sale of U.S. Patriot interceptor missiles to Taiwan.
While Xinhua, China's official news agency, stressed in a terse, three-sentence announcement of the test that the new system "is not targeted at any country," it plainly was a shot across the U.S. bow for its continuing weapons sales to Taiwan.
While the Pentagon said it had received no prior notice of China's missile test, it added that U.S. space-based sensors "detected two geographically separated missile-launch events" leading to an "exo-atmospheric collision." (Source: Mark Thompson Time.com.Jan 13, 2010).