Philip Coyle, who was associate director for national security and international affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy under President Barack Obama, likened China’s protest to Russia’s objection to U.S. missile interceptors in Romania and Poland.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin hates U.S. missile defenses in Europe and [he] has given long speeches about how these defenses are upsetting the strategic balance,” Coyle, who was also assistant secretary of defense and director of operational test and evaluation at the Pentagon from 1994 to 2001, wrote in an email.