万花筒2008-02-23:北京回应美国打卫星事件（在线收听）

Beijing is asking Washington to provide more information about the destruction of a U.S. satellite. CNN's John Vause reports

Officials in Beijing have been choosing their words carefully, playing up their concern about any harm the satellite shoot-down may have done to outer space as well as other countries and demanding more information from the United States.  

China further requests that the U. S. fulfill its international obligations in earnest and promptly provide to the international community the necessary information and relevant data so that relevant countries can take precautions.  

But the Chinese conducted a successful test of a satellite-killing weapon just over a year ago, at the time, they were harshly criticized by a number of countries and the U. S. administration launched a formal diplomatic protest. 

And so today in the overseas edition of People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, there was a very blunt front-page editorial, accusing the U. S. of hypocrisy and of having dangerous space ambitions. 

Adding to all of this tension, earlier this month, both Russia and China had proposed a treaty to ban weapons in space, but that was rejected by Washington. On the satellite shoot-down, U. S. officials are pointing out that they announced their plans well ahead of time, whereas the Chinese test last year was conducted in secret, and they only fessed up once they were caught out by US intelligence.  

John Vause, CNN, Beijing.   

WORDS IN THE NEWS     

1. play up : phase verb

If you play up something, you emphasize it and try to make people believe that it is important.

2. hypocrisy : n-var disapproval

If you accuse someone of hypocrisy, you mean that they pretend to have qualities, beliefs, or feelings that they do not really have.

 3. fess up

To recognize, often reluctantly, the reality or truth of……