China submarine missile test draws Pacific protests

China test-launched a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine in the South Pacific on Monday, prompting protests and warnings from Australia, New Zealand and Japan over military activity in the region.

The Chinese navy fired the missile at 12:01 p.m. local time, or 04:01 GMT, from one of its nuclear-powered submarines, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The missile carried a dummy warhead and landed in “designated waters” in the Pacific Ocean, according to Xinhua.

China described the launch as a routine part of annual military training. Xinhua said the test complied with international law and practice and was not aimed at any country or specific target. The statement was reposted by China’s Ministry of Defense.

But regional governments said the test raised concerns about security in the Pacific. Australia, New Zealand and Japan all criticized the launch after being notified by Chinese authorities before it took place.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said China had told Canberra of plans to conduct a sea-based missile test into the Pacific. Speaking at a news conference in Suva, Fiji, she called the action “destabilising” to the region.

“Australia has been clear that this proposed test is in the context of a rapid military build-up by China, which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects,” Wong said. She also told reporters in Fiji: “Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilizing to the region.”

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

New Zealand said it was informed only hours before the missile was fired and noted that the launch was conducted 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 protocols in 1987 pledging not to test nuclear weapons within the zone or threaten to use them against signatories with territory there.

“New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development. We, like our neighbours in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.

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

Japan said it was notified before the launch and urged China to reconsider. According to AFP, Tokyo said the Japanese Embassy in Beijing had been told about the planned test by Chinese authorities before it occurred.

“We expressed our grave concern over the Chinese military’s increased activity,” Japan’s government said. It added that Japan’s coastguard had been notified on Sunday by Chinese authorities about falling space debris that could come down within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

In a separate joint government statement reported by AFP, Japan said: “We strongly called for a rethink of the ballistic missile test-firing, so that it won’t pose a threat to Japan’s security such as by passing through Japan’s airspace.”

China last conducted a missile test in the Pacific two years ago, when it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead. CBS News reported that the 2024 launch mirrored testing by the United States for its own ballistic missile fleet and that experts at the time viewed it as an assertion of China’s growing superpower status.

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