The United States, not Russia or China have become the main threat to the peaceful exploration of space, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday, TASS reported.

"The US has repeatedly played up the so-called outer space threat from China and Russia in disregard of the facts. In fact, the United States is currently the biggest threat to outer space security," he told a briefing.

According to the Chinese diplomat, Washington is trying to slander Beijing and Moscow's efforts to explore the universe in order to "create a pretext for the militarization of space by the United States."

"The US sticking to the Cold War mentality and shifting its own responsibility," Zhao Lijian said.

As he clarified, the United States funds both government and commercial space projects that are actually carried out for military purposes. The official also recalled that the United States continues to actively build up the capacity of troops to conduct combat operations in near-Earth space.