China fires ICBM into Pacific Ocean in first such public test in decades as regional tensions flare

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

China says it successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, a rare public test that analysts said was meant to send a message to the United States and its allies amid heightened regional tensions.

An ICBM carrying a dummy warhead was launched at 8:44 a.m. Beijing time and fell into a designated area in the high seas of the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not specify the missile’s flight path or landing location.

The ministry said the launch, by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, was part of its routine annual training and not directed at any country or target. It comes as China and Russia conduct joint naval exercises in nearby seas close to Japan.

The launch “effectively tested the performance of weapons and equipment as well as the training level of the troops, and achieved the expected objectives,” state news agency Xinhua said in a separate report, adding that China had “notified relevant countries in advance” of the test.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the US received “some advanced notification” of the test from Beijing, calling it “a step in the right direction … to preventing any misperception or miscalculation.”

Wednesday’s launch marks the first time China has tested an ICBM over the Pacific Ocean in more than four decades.

In 1980, China test-fired its first ICBM, the DF-5, into the South Pacific from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s northwest, traversing a distance of more than 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles).

China has quietly conducted more ICBM tests since then, mostly over its own territory, with many landing in the deserts of the far western region of Xinjiang.

In December 2013, a Chinese defense ministry spokesperson was asked at a regular news conference about an ICBM test launched from a submarine in the Bohai Sea, an inland sea off China’s northeast coast.

“It is normal for China to conduct scientific research experiments within its territory according to plan,” the spokesperson replied.

China’s defense ministry and state media offered little details about the test on Wednesday, including the type of ICBM launched. The country’s latest ICBM, known to be the DF-41, is estimated to have a range of 12,000 to 15,000 kilometers (7,400 to 9,300 miles) and is capable of reaching the US mainland.

Analysts said China’s rare announcement of the test was intended as a warning to the US and its allies amid rising tensions in surrounding waters, from the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea.

Beijing’s test was a message to Washington that “direct intervention in a conflict across the Taiwan Strait would involve the American homeland being vulnerable to attack,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.

“To US allies in Asia, China’s provocative test, conducted during its expansive regional military exercises, demonstrates its capabilities to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously,” he added.

Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the timing of the public test was potentially significant.

“China launches a lot of missiles. They don’t announce a lot of them. It’s interesting that they would choose now,” he said.

The public test comes as China adopts an increasingly assertive stance in the region.

Over the past weeks, Japan has strongly protested incursions by Chinese and Russian military aircraft into its airspace; Chinese and Philippine vessels have engaged in multiple collisions near a dangerous new flashpoint; and Taiwan says China has recently been conducting intensive missile firing and other military drills near the self-ruled island.

“This is quite a statement to launch a ballistic missile into the Pacific at this time when China is in conflict with many of its neighbors,” Thompson said. “This launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone.”

Another key question is which countries China notified in advance of the launch, Thompson said.

“There’s a long-standing global norm of notifying countries when certain long-range ballistic missiles are launched to prevent the risk of miscalculation,” he said. “China is not party to any agreement other than a bilateral agreement with Russia.”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters Wednesday that Tokyo was not notified by Beijing before the launch of the missile, which did not cross Japanese airspace.

The Japan Coast Guard told CNN it was told by China on Monday that “space debris” would fall into three areas – two locations off the Philippine island of Luzon and another in the South Pacific – between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Wednesday.

During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union agreed to notify each other of ballistic missile launches extending beyond their territories, and expanded on that in 2000.

In 2009, China and Russia signed an agreement to notify each other of impending ballistic missile launches. The two sides extended the pact by another decade after it expired in 2020.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China has bolstered its nuclear capabilities and revamped the PLA’s Rocket Force, an elite branch overseeing the country’s fast-expanding arsenal of nuclear and ballistic missiles.

In the past few years, satellite photos have shown the construction of what appears to be hundreds of silos for ICBMs in China’s deserts, and the US Defense Department is predicting exponential growth in the number of nuclear warheads in Beijing’s arsenal in the next decade.

China held more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of 2023 and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in its annual report on Beijing’s military last year.

The PLA’s Rocket Force was roiled by a sweeping corruption crackdown last year that saw a string of senior generals purged.

By conducting the high-profile ICBM test, “Beijing may be attempting to show that recent corruption scandals have not diminished the military’s readiness or reach,” said Easley at Ewha University.

This story has been updated with additional information.