China conducts missile test in Pacific Ocean

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China’s navy said it successfully conducted a test missile launch in the Pacific Ocean on Monday, after nations in the region warned that Beijing was planning to test an intercontinental ballistic missile.

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“At 12:01 pm on July 6, a strategic nuclear submarine of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy successfully launched a… strategic missile carrying a training simulation warhead into the relevant high seas of the Pacific Ocean, accurately landing in the designated sea area,” spokesperson Wang Xuemeng said in a statement posted on a navy WeChat account.

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“This missile test launch is a routine arrangement of China’s annual military training, and relevant countries were informed in advance,” Wang said.

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The launch came on the same day that China and Russia were due to begin their annual joint naval exercises off Qingdao, a major military port and seaside resort in China’s east.

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It was not immediately clear if the missile launch was part of those drills.

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Papua New Guinea’s foreign minister and a New Zealand government source told AFP earlier on Monday that China was preparing to test-fire a nuclear-capable missile into the Pacific Ocean.

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“Yes, China has briefed me. I was personally called by the Chinese ambassador,” Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said when asked if he had been warned.

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A New Zealand government source also told AFP China had alerted them about an upcoming intercontinental ballistic missile test.

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They did not make clear where the missile was expected to land.

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China’s elite Rocket Force fired a dummy warhead into the sea near French Polynesia in September 2024, its first long-range missile launch over international waters in more than 40 years.

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It appeared to be one of China’s advanced Dong Feng-31 missiles, analysts said at the time, a weapon capable of delivering a thermonuclear warhead.

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The long-range missile splashed into a patch of ocean long designated a nuclear-free zone under an international treaty.

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New Zealand’s Defence Force has privately warned that Beijing’s naval forays and ballistic missile tests would become a “persistent” feature of the Pacific, according to an internal document obtained by AFP last month.

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AFP

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