China confirmed Tuesday that it did use a missile to shoot down one of its own old weather satellites on January 11, the Wall Street Journal reported. The anti-satellite weapons test has prompted concern from other nations, including the US and Japan, that China is moving to militarize outer space. Making Beijing's first public comment on the test, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended the test, saying "China opposes the weaponization of space and any arms race". He also said the "test is not targeted at any country" and that China had offered explanations of its actions to the US and Japan. The international community has observed that the debris created by such tests could scatter and strike other satellites orbiting the earth. The test is also seen as a threat to US spy satellites, which orbit at about the same altitude as China's weather satellites.