Brian Gaff wrote:
This event seems to be a huge miscalculation on their part. Surely someone
in their government must have realised that this is dangerous to their
reputation and hence their image in the world?

I think it was a smart move on their part. Previously if China had
demanded that someone stop taking satellite imagery of an area, or if
they demanded that Taiwan get degraded GPS/Galileo, the offending
organization would just say "no". Now that organization will have to
think twice about such a demand. A one-off successful ASAT test gives
any such future demands considerable weight.

The US did exactly the same thing. Remember that Europe's Galileo has
agreed to degrade its signal whenever and wherever the US wants? The
reason for this is that the US threatened Galileo with destruction
should they fail to comply. A threat which was backed up by two ASAT
tests (one kinetic, one laser).

So in the short-term does degrade China's image. But in the long-term
they become someone you don't want to upset.