Of course, when China shot down one of its own weather satellites on January 11, the US protested, pointing out that that action caused a lot of space debris and endangered other satellites, as well as it being a bad precedent for the militarization of space.

Though I can't remember the source, apparently the debris from this shot is expected to be much less and to scatter over a much smaller area, and much of the Chinese debris will remain in orbit for many years. Something to do with altitude/apogee.