China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) made a rare announcement on Wednesday that it had successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The missile, carrying a dummy warhead, crashed in what the People's Liberation Army described as an “expected” landing zone in “international waters of the Pacific Ocean.”
China Ministry of Defense It is called This is a “normal arrangement in the annual training programme” that is not intended to threaten or intimidate any particular country.
Chinese state media said there was advance warning to countries in the region about the launch, but there was little evidence of such a warning as of Wednesday morning.
The Japan Coast Guard said China had issued a vague navigation warning over the possibility of “space debris” falling into three waters in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Japan's government said on Wednesday it had received no advance notice from China about the missile tests.
Japanese officials have said China's recent military buildup, including “intensive” missile drills, is of serious concern.
Philippine authorities said An air and maritime navigation alert was issued for two areas north of the Philippines on Monday, saying China would carry out “special operations” of a “dangerous nature” but did not appear to specifically mention missile launches.
Chinese state media said the launch was a successful test of “weapons and equipment performance and troop training level” and “achieved expected objectives.”
New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the ICBM launch an “unwelcome and worrying development.”
“Pacific leaders have been clear that they want the region to be peaceful, stable, prosperous and secure,” said a spokesman for New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
China has protested the launch, saying it was entirely routine and not intended to make any political statement, but the People's Liberation Army extremely rarely tests intercontinental ballistic missiles and never publicizes those launches when it does.
Most of China's ICBM test vehicles to date Release To Taklamakan DesertChina's last ICBM launch into the Pacific Ocean was in 1980, in a major military operation involving 18 ships to track the missile's flight, one of the largest naval operations in Chinese history.
Few observers believed China's claims that the missile launches were routine and harmless.
Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace I was in deep thought. He said China's description of the tests as “routine” and “annual” was “strange given that they do not conduct these types of tests routinely or annually.”
China's increasingly aggressive incursions into Japanese airspace suggest it may be planning to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile as a show of military might. The launch came during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, a rather key moment for a provocative military move.
Drew Thompson, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, said ICBM tests typically involve a high arc and relatively short distances from the launch site, but China's test launch appeared to be intended to demonstrate the missile's straight-line range.
“China is sending strong signals about its power in the world,” Thompson said.
“If China does this after 44 years of not doing anything, that's a big deal. It's China's way of saying to us, 'Like you, we're not ashamed to have nuclear weapons, and we intend to act like a great nuclear power,'” said James Acton, a senior fellow and co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for Nuclear Policy. said The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
