Source : the age
A Chinese submarine has launched a nuclear-capable long-range missile with a dummy warhead in the Pacific Ocean as Australia and Fiji celebrated the striking of a new defence alliance.
Chinese state-owned media outlet Xinhua reported that at 12.01pm on Monday a “strategic nuclear submarine of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy successfully launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile carrying a simulated training warhead into the high seas of the Pacific Ocean”.
“The missile accurately landed in the designated area,” Xinhua reported. “This missile test was a routine part of China’s annual military training program, and relevant countries had been notified in advance.
“It is in accordance with international law and practice and is not directed against any specific country or target.”
China’s warnings to regional diplomats on Monday afternoon, came just hours after Australia and Fiji struck a new defence alliance.
Diplomatic sources confirmed to this masthead that Chinese officials had briefed various regional governments, including Australia and New Zealand, about an intercontinental ballistic missile test in the Pacific.
Speaking before Xinhua’s reports of the test being carried out, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilising to the region.
Australia has been clear that this proposal, 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 Pacific leaders had made clear “they want the Pacific to be an Ocean of Peace. We believe this test is inconsistent with that objective.
Defence Minister Richard Marles told reporters: “We were informed by China today of its intention to do this test.
“We are very concerned about any actions which undermine the stability, the peace, and security of the Pacific.”
Marles said he did not believe the test was designed as retaliation for the defence treaty struck between Australia and Fiji.
China previously test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in September 2024, the first such test since 1980.
The 2024 test involved the firing of a missile carrying a dummy warhead from Hainan Island, a Chinese province in the South China Sea.
It travelled about 11,500 kilometres before landing in waters in the exclusive economic zone of French Polynesia. China’s defence ministry said at the time that the test was a “legitimate and routine arrangement for military training”, in line with international law and not aimed at any country or target.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Justin Bassi said the Chinese test-firing “represents an escalation in its ongoing military expansion and sends a deeply concerning strategic signal to Australia and the wider Indo-Pacific”.
The Chinese navy conducted live-firing exercises in the Tasman Sea in February 2025, forcing commercial airlines to change their flight routes.
More to come
Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Lisa Visentin is the North Asia correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age based in Beijing. She was previously a federal political correspondent based in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
