From Ashley Tellis’ article in Survival entitled, China’s Military Space Strategy:
US policymakers, too, were aware of the preparations leading up to the test as well as its successful outcome but, after considerable internal deliberations, chose to keep silent. A week later, when an American scholar, Jerry Lewis, and Aviation Week & Space Technology finally broke the story almost simultaneously, the Chinese government responded with a mixture of confusion and denial.
The telethon is going great, thanks for asking.
Here is the original post.