China fires ICBM into Pacific Ocean in first such public test in decades as regional tensions flare

China says it successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, a rare public test that comes amid heightened tensions with the United States and its regional allies.

An ICBM carrying a dummy warhead was launched at 8:44 a.m. Beijing time and fell into a designated area in the high seas of the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not specify the missile’s flight path or landing location.

The ministry said the launch, by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, was part of its routine annual training and was not directed at any country or target. It comes as China and Russia conduct joint naval exercises in nearby seas close to Japan.

China “notified relevant countries in advance,” state news agency Xinhua said in a separate report, without specifying who it notified.

The launch “effectively tested the performance of weapons and equipment as well as the training level of the troops, and achieved the expected objectives,” Xinhua reported.

This is the first time China has publicly announced an ICBM test in the Pacific Ocean in more than four decades.

In 1980, China celebrated the successful test of its first ICBM, the DF-5. Launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s northwest, the missile flew more than 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles) into the South Pacific.

Since then, China has been quietly conducting more ICBM tests. Most took place over its own territory, with many landing in the country’s far western deserts.

In December 2013, a Chinese defense ministry spokesperson was asked at a regular news conference about an ICBM test launched from a submarine in the Bohai Sea, an inland sea off China’s northeast coast.

“It is normal for China to conduct scientific research experiments within its territory according to plan,” the spokesperson replied.

China’s defense ministry and state media offered little details about the test on Wednesday, including the type of ICBM launched. The country’s latest ICBM, known to be the DF-41, is estimated to have a range of 12,000 to 15,000 kilometers (7,400 to 9,300 miles) and is capable of reaching the US mainland.

China’s high-profile test in the Pacific comes amid rising tensions in surrounding waters, from the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea.

“China launches a lot of missiles. They don’t announce a lot of them. It’s interesting that they would choose now,” said Drew Thompson, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Over the past weeks, Japan has strongly protested incursions by Chinese and Russian military aircraft into its airspace; Chinese and Philippine vessels have engaged in multiple collisions near a dangerous new flashpoint; and Taiwan says China has recently been conducting intensive missile firing and other military drills near the self-ruled island.

“This is quite a statement to launch a ballistic missile into the Pacific at this time when China is in conflict with many of its neighbors,” Thompson said. “This launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone.”

Another key question is which countries China notified in advance of the launch, Thompson said.

“There’s a long-standing global norm of notifying countries when certain long-range ballistic missiles are launched to prevent the risk of miscalculation,” he said. “China is not party to any agreement other than a bilateral agreement with Russia.”

During the Cold War, the US and the Soviet Union agreed to notify each other of ballistic missile launches extending beyond their territories, and expanded on that in 2000.

In 2009, China and Russia signed an agreement to notify each other of impending ballistic missile launches. The two sides extended the pact by another decade after it expired in 2020.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China has bolstered its nuclear capabilities and revamped the PLA’s Rocket Force, an elite branch overseeing the country’s fast-expanding arsenal of nuclear and ballistic missiles.

In the past few years, satellite photos have shown the construction of what appears to be hundreds of silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles in China’s deserts, and the US Defense Department is predicting exponential growth in the number of nuclear warheads in Beijing’s arsenal in the next decade.

China held more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of 2023 and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in its annual report on Beijing’s military last year.