(Bloomberg) -- China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in what appeared to be its first such public test in some four decades, a move likely to rattle the US as it seeks to sway world leaders at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force launched the ICBM with a “dummy warhead” at 8:44 a.m. on Wednesday, the nation’s military said. The missile fell into the “expected” area, it added, without clarifying where that was. ICBMs are designed to carry a nuclear warhead to a target several thousand miles away.
“This test launch is a routine arrangement in our annual training plan,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on social media. “It is in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target.”
China said it notified “relevant countries” in advance, according to a separate report by the official Xinhua News Agency. “We did receive some advanced notification of this ICBM test,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, “and we believe that that was a good thing.”
Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi, however, said at a regular briefing in Tokyo that his nation received no prior notice, calling the military activity a “serious concern.”
While China frequently tests missiles most of those launches are conducted inland, according to James Char, assistant professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, who added the last reported ICBM test of this sort was in the 1980s. “Shooting out to the ocean requires prior communication with countries in the region,” Char added. “So it’s not very common.”
China celebrated its first successful ICBM test in May 1980, becoming the third country to do so in a feat authorities said broke “the long-term monopoly of superpowers on intercontinental strategic nuclear weapons.”
This week’s rare public announcement comes as China and the US ramp up efforts to stabilize ties with renewed military talks, despite lingering tensions. Those thorny issues include Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing wants to control and President Joe Biden has pledged to defend from a Chinese invasion.
Beijing has also recently been angered by the deployment of an advanced mid-range US missile system capable of striking parts of southeast China that have been in the Philippines since April, adding to already high tensions over competing claims in the South China Sea.
“This is a pretty bold and provocative statement, and I think the timing is significant,” said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, adding that the ICBM launch showed the world that Beijing could dispatch its strategic weapons on any country.
“It’s taking place during the United Nations General Assembly,” he said. “It’s putting the world at risk.”
China’s Rocket Force has come under scrutiny over the past year, with top officials from the unit that manages the nation’s nuclear arsenal being investigated for corruption. US intelligence agencies believe the purge came after it emerged widespread graft undermined President Xi Jinping’s efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about China’s ability to fight a war.
“My sense is China’s nuclear modernization has caused a rethink of testing requirements,” said Ankit Panda, Stanton senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “This missile may be part of a newer generation of ICBMs that have has previously never been tested into the Pacific. It’s yet another symptom of the new nuclear age dawning in Asia.”
China’s nuclear threat has been a pressing concern of the US. The Pentagon said last year that Beijing had about 500 operational warheads and was looking to increase that to more than 1,000 by 2030 as part of Xi’s push to achieve a “world class” military by 2049. The nation’s Rocket Force has some 350 ICBMs, which are weapons with a range of more than 5,500 kilometers (3,420 miles), it added.
China has also reportedly launched into orbit hypersonic missiles, highly maneuverable weapons designed to be too quick and agile for traditional missile defense systems to detect in time. That’s raised concerns Beijing is exploring ways to counter American advancements in shooting down ballistic missiles before they threaten its homeland.
The US routinely test launches ICBMs and other missiles, including into the Pacific Ocean. In June, American forces fired a Minuteman III ICBM from California into a test site that is part of the territory of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
US adversaries Russia and North Korea have also stepped up their programs to deploy ICBMs that can strike the American mainland.
North Korea last year tested its solid-fuel Hwasong-18 ICBM with leader Kim Jong Un on hand. That ICBM flew longer than any of his nation’s other long-range missiles and appeared designed to carry a multiple nuclear-weapon payload, which increases the chances at least one bomb could slip past interceptors and reach a target.
This month, Russia appeared to suffer a setback in its longstanding ICBM program when its Sarmat ICBM – known in the West as Satan II – experienced a “catastrophic failure” during a test launch, the Guardian newspaper reported. It said satellite imagery showed a crater at a launch site, indicating that it blew up in a silo.
--With assistance from Alastair Gale, Josh Xiao, Yian Lee and Natalia Drozdiak.
(Updates with Pentagon response. A previous version of this story corrected the number of US war heads.)
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