China test-launches ballistic missile from sub in South Pacific, drawing protests

Bangkok — China’s military test-launched a long-range ballistic missile Monday from one of its nuclear-powered submarines in the South Pacific, drawing protest and concern 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, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with a dummy warhead. That previous launch in international waters was the first in decades, since 1980.

Monday’s launch was part of routine annual training, complied with international law and practice, and was not directed against any country or target, according to a short 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 viewed it at the time as an assertion of China’s growing superpower status. 

Australia, New Zealand and Japan 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 is 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.

Tokyo said on Monday it had strongly urged China to reconsider the test after the Japanese Embassy in Beijing was told about it by Chinese authorities before the event, French news agency AFP reports.

“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,” a joint government statement said.

Beijing brushed off the criticism Monday.

“We hope that the relevant countries will avoid overinterpretation,” a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said.

China maintains a “no first use” of nuclear weapons policy, but is also actively pursuing nuclear technology and weaponry as part of its long-term strategy to modernize the People’s Liberation Army.

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.

In its latest report to Congress on China’s military capabilities, released in late 2025, the Pentagon said China had an estimated stockpile of around 600 nuclear warheads in 2024, adding that the PLA remains on track to field more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.