Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sun Yuxi made the remarks Tuesday, citing that the destruction of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty will result in the annihilation of the whole structure of strategic stability and create prerequisites for a new arms race, including one in outer space.

Sun was referring to a recent US simulated space confrontation exercise in Colorado.

On January 22, US military personnel and technical specialists took part in a five-day exercise in Colorado set in 2017, the first time the US has conducted a space war game.

"China is seriously concerned about this large-scale space confrontation exercise," said Sun, siting that the militarization of outer space is been a pressing and real problem.

The US plans go against the trend of the times and are detrimental to international disarmament and arms control efforts, said Sun.

"It will have a far-reaching and extensive negative impact on the global and regional strategic balance and stability in the 21st century," he said.

"We hope the US side will abide by the ABM treaty, which has always been a cornerstone in safeguarding global strategic stability and providing the necessary security framework for nuclear disarmament," Sun said.

His remark came after new US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's speech at a defence conference in Munich. Rumsfeld reiterated Washington's intention to develop a missile shield despite objections from its European allies, Russia and other nations.

The alternative is a dangerous arms race into space, Sun said, urging an international conference on preventing the militarization of outer space.

(China Daily 02/07/2001)