The government said it test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, firing it into the Pacific Ocean in its first such exercise in decades.
Beijing has stepped up its nuclear development and boosted defence spending in recent years.
China held more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and is likely to have more than 1,000 by 2030, the Pentagon noted last October.
Yesterday, the Chinese military’s Rocket Force “launched an ICBM... carrying a dummy warhead to the high seas in the Pacific Ocean at 8.44 (local time) on Sept 25, and the missile fell into expected sea areas”, the defence ministry said in a statement.
An analyst said such tests were very rare.
“This is extremely unusual and likely the first time in decades that we’ve seen a test like this,” said Ankit Panda, Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“(The test) likely speaks to China’s ongoing nuclear modernisation manifesting in new requirements for testing,” he added.
China’s defence ministry, however, called the firing a “routine arrangement in our annual training plan”.
“It is in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target,” it said.
Beijing first test-fired an ICBM into the South Pacific in the 1980s.
But since then, Panda said, it has typically conducted such tests in its own airspace.
In an annual report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute listed China as having the world’s third-largest stockpile of nuclear warheads, after Russia and the United States. — AFP
