China test-launches a ballistic missile in the South Pacific and raises regional concerns

Sailors march past the insignia for the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s naval submarine academy during a tour arranged for foreign journalists a day before the opening of the West Pacific Naval Symposium in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong province, Sunday, April 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

BANGKOK — China’s navy test-launched a long-range ballistic missile Monday from one of its nuclear-powered submarines in the South Pacific in a rare move that drew protests and concerns from countries in the region.

The missile was launched at 12:01 p.m. local time and carried a dummy warhead, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. China last conducted a missile test in the Pacific two years ago, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead, the first in decades since 1980.

The 2024 launch mirrored the testing the United States conducts for its own ballistic missile fleet, which experts viewed as an assertion of China’s growing superpower status.

Monday’s launch was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and practice, and was not directed against any country or target, according to a short statement from Xinhua, which was reposted by the Ministry of Defense.

Beijing’s militarization has drawn concerns, with Australia, Japan and New Zealand criticizing the launch.

The New Zealand government said it was informed of the planned launch hours beforehand and noted that the missile was fired into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.

The zone was established by the 1986 Treaty of Rarotonga, which prohibits nuclear weapons throughout the region. China ratified the protocols in 1987, pledging not to test nuclear weapons within the zone or threaten to use them against signatories with territory in the region.

“It appears that despite our long-standing concerns about this type of activity, China carried out the test within hours of informing us,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters told The Associated Press in a statement.

The launch took place the same day Australia and Fiji signed a new mutual defense treaty meant to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific.

“Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilizing to the region,” Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in Fiji in response to the test.

Japan’s Defense Ministry expressed concern in a statement about China’s increasing military activity and urged Beijing to “rethink” its missile testing so that the projectiles would not fly over Japan or pose other security risks.

“China’s military activities, combined with its lack of transparency, have become a grave concern for Japan and the international society,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said in Japan, citing Beijing’s active military activities around Japan and its increased military spending.

Beijing brushed off the criticism Monday.

“We hope that the relevant countries will avoid overinterpretation,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.

The concern is a result of a lack of clear information, said Drew Thompson, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “China’s military modernization and buildup have occurred without concurrent increases in openness and transparency, resulting in uncertainty about China’s intentions.”

He added that the Chinese criticism of Japan’s increased defence spending is hypocritical, given that its own military buildup since 2000 has resulted in the largest military expansion by any state since World War II.

China maintains a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy, but is also actively pursuing nuclear technology and weaponry as part of its long-term strategy to modernize the People’s Liberation Army.

China has a fleet of six ballistic-missile submarines and 59 nuclear-powered attack submarines, according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based think tank.

In its latest report to Congress on China’s military capabilities, released in late 2025, the Pentagon said China had an estimated stockpile of around 600 nuclear warheads in 2024, adding that the PLA remains on track to field more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Japan, and E. Eduardo Castillo in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Huizhong Wu And Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press