China urged the United States to halt its military build-up in outer space after Washington acknowledged it ​has weapons deployed in orbit, while Chinese state media ‌warned the move could fuel a global arms race.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said Beijing opposed the weaponization of outer space and ​turning it into a war zone.

"We urge the U.S. ​to stop expanding military build-up in outer space, and ⁠uphold global strategic stability with concrete actions," Guo told a ​regular press briefing on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of the Air Force ​Troy Meink said on Monday the United States had "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action", the strongest ​acknowledgement yet by a Pentagon official of U.S. weapons in ​orbit. Meink did not identify the weapons.

China's state-backed Global Times said in a ‌report ⁠on Tuesday that the disclosure exposed what it called Washington’s pursuit of "space hegemony" and risked fuelling a global space arms race.

Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping told the newspaper the acknowledgement marked ​a shift from ​protecting space ⁠assets and relying on ground-based counter-space systems toward directly deploying weapons in orbit.

"If the U.S. continues ​down this path, other countries may be forced ​to ⁠respond," Song said.

Last week, state news agency Xinhua said in an analysis of a U.S. orbital military exercise that Washington's push ⁠to weaponize ​this domain risked creating a "security dilemma", ​forcing other countries to strengthen counter-space capabilities that the United States would then ​regard as new threats.