China is planning an advanced mission to strike an asteroid and alter its orbit with a spacecraft to mitigate the threat of an impact, according to a top space researcher. If successful, China will become the second country after the United States to achieve this ability.

Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, revealed this "kinetic impact demonstration mission" on Friday, saying it would test the feasibility of "defending against asteroids".

The mission, which China is "striving to carry out within this year", will target a small asteroid located tens of millions of kilometres away, aiming to produce an orbital deflection of about 3cm to 5cm (1.2 to 2 inches), Wu told broadcaster CGTN.

He said the mission would include both an observer and an impactor spacecraft.

Wu revealed the plan at the third Deep Space Exploration (Tiandu) International Conference in Hefei, in the central province of Anhui.