China says it launched a rocket with a dummy warhead into the Pacific

Taipei: China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead that landed in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the country’s defense ministry announced, in a sign of President Xi Jinping’s commitment to keep strengthening China’s missile force after a period of corruption scandals and command turbulence.

The launch appeared to be the first time in 44 years that China has publicly announced a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific region. It was fired by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force and struck in the “high seas,” China’s Ministry of National Defense said, without giving details of where the dummy warhead fell, what model of missile carried it or where it was launched. It said the dummy warhead “fell precisely into the assigned seas.”

“This missile launch was a routine part of the Rocket Force’s annual exercises,” the ministry said, adding that it “was not aimed at any specific country or target.” China’s official news agency, Xinhua, stated that Beijing had notified “the relevant countries” about the missile test, without elaborating. China usually tests its missiles within its own borders.

China’s assurances appeared unlikely to dispel questions about the test from experts and officials in the region. Such missiles fly in an arc high above the Earth and can deliver warheads thousands of miles, making them a pillar of each superpower’s nuclear capabilities. China has about 134 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, that can deliver around 240 warheads, according to an annual survey from the Federation of American Scientists, a bit under half of the numbers fielded by the United States or Russia.

“It is difficult to hide a ballistic missile launch into the Pacific, so it is sensible for Beijing to announce that it took place and control the narrative,” said Drew Thomson, a former Pentagon official who is now a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

“China is sending a signal,” Thomson said. “This ballistic missile test puts China’s adversaries on notice that there are limits to its forbearance, and it also underscores the Communist Party’s acute sense of risk and vulnerability.”

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other Asian governments are anxious about China’s expanding military strength. “The Japanese government is trying to confirm details,” Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief Cabinet secretary in the Japanese government, said at a regular news conference Wednesday. He said that Tokyo did not receive advance notice about the launch of the missile, which did not appear to fly over Japanese territory. Japan was already upset about recent incursions into its airspace by Chinese and Russian military aircraft.

“China’s military activities lack transparency, and that has become a serious concern for Japan and the international community,” Hayashi said.

The Pentagon calls China the “pacing challenge” to the United States’ global military dominance, especially in Asia. The Rocket Force is the custodian of most of China’s nuclear weapons as well as many hundreds of conventionally armed missiles. It has been at the forefront of Xi’s ambitions to project power across the region and blunt American influence.

But over the past two years, China’s weapons bureaucracy appeared unsettled by scandal. In 2023, Xi abruptly replaced the two top commanders of the Rocket Force with outsiders with no experience in the missile force. Other senior officers also disappeared, as did two former Chinese ministers of defense.

China may have at least partly intended the launch to reinforce the credibility of its missile forces, and its nuclear deterrent, said Ying-Yu Lin, an assistant professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan who specializes in the People’s Liberation Army. “They would like to dispel doubts abroad about the strength of the Rocket Force,” he said.

In June, the Chinese Communist Party leadership expelled the two ministers — Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe — from the party, accusing them of corruption and disloyalty. The following month, party leaders confirmed the expulsions of Li Yuchao, a former Rocket Force commander, and Sun Jinming, a former chief of staff.

Even so, the Chinese rollout of new missiles does not seem to have slowed much. The Pentagon’s latest report on the People’s Liberation Army said last year it was developing new intercontinental missiles “that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces.” The report also said that China “may be exploring” development of conventionally armed intercontinental ballistic systems.

China last announced an intercontinental ballistic missile test into the Pacific Ocean in May 1980, according to Chinese news reports about the latest launch. In 2021, China launched two tests of hypersonic gliders that can be carried into orbit by missiles, potentially with nuclear warheads. The People’s Liberation Army has also built over 300 silos that could house intercontinental ballistic missiles across three sites in northern China.