China test-launches a ballistic missile in a South Pacific nuclear-free zone

BANGKOK (AP) — China’s military 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 protest and concerns from countries in the region.

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

The launch was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and practice, and was not directed against any country or target, according to the one-line statement from Xinhua, which was reposted by the Ministry of Defense.

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

Australia, Japan and New Zealand criticized 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 nuclear-free zone was established by the 1986 Treaty of Rarotonga, which prohibits nuclear weapons throughout the region. China in 1987 ratified the protocols pledging not to test nuclear weapons within the zone, or to 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 that was 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 in a statement conveyed its concern about China’s increasing military activity and asked Beijing to “rethink” its missile testing so the projectiles would not fly over Japan or pose other security risks.

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.

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

Huizhong Wu And Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press