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The launch of a nuclear-capable long-range missile from a Chinese submarine in the South Pacific with just hours of notice has angered Australia and New Zealand, who labelled the test destabilising and concerning.
The firing of the ballistic missile, fitted with a dummy warhead, came just hours after Australia and Fiji struck a new defence alliance that commits them to come to each other’s aid if they come under attack.
A Chinese tracking ship was stationed alongside Fiji at the time of the missile firing, with a leading maritime surveillance company saying its presence was unlikely to have been coincidental.
Senior Captain Wang Xuemeng, a spokesman for China’s People’s Liberation Army navy, said that a Chinese strategic nuclear submarine successfully launched a strategic missile carrying a training dummy warhead toward “relevant high seas areas of the Pacific Ocean” at 12.01pm on Monday.
Wang said the missile “accurately landed within the predetermined sea area”.
“This missile test launch is a routine arrangement of the Chinese side’s annual military training, and relevant countries have been notified in advance,” he said.
“It complies with international law and international practices and is not targeted at any specific country or target.”
State media outlet The Global Times quoted Chinese defence experts stating that Monday’s test was likely of the JuLang-3 submarine-launched missile.
Chinese officials had briefed various regional governments, including Australia and New Zealand, about an intercontinental ballistic missile test in the Pacific earlier on Monday.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: “Australia has been clear with China that we regard this as destabilising to the region” before adding that Pacific leaders had made clear they wanted the Pacific to be “an Ocean of Peace. We believe this test is inconsistent with that objective.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China hoped “relevant countries will not overinterpret the matter”. She described the launch as “a routine military training exercise, not targeted at any specific country or target, and relevant countries have been notified in advance, which is in line with international law and international practice”.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was “deeply concerned” by the testing, complaining that it was carried out only hours after notice was given to Pacific nations.
“New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development,” Peters said.
“We, like our neighbours in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability.”
Peters said the missile was fired into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone established by the Treaty of Rarotonga as he flagged further discussions with Pacific nations in response to the test.
“We as a region should not sit by and allow such tests to become normalised or routine,” he said.
The Japanese government said it had urged China to reconsider the missile launch after receiving notification. “We expressed our grave concern over the Chinese military’s increased activity,” a government spokesperson said.
Maritime intelligence company Starboard said it had identified two Chinese satellite tracking ships, the Yuan Wang 3 and Yuan Wang 6, operating in international waters near the Federated States of Micronesia’s exclusive economic zone at the time of the test. The vessels left China around June 25.
A third tracking ship, the Yuan Wang 5, is currently alongside in Suva after operating in the eastern Pacific and arriving in Fiji on July 3.
Mark Douglas, a senior Starboard employee, said Yuan Wang 5’s “presence in the region is unlikely to be coincidental. The significance of that vessel being berthed in Fiji’s capital in the same week Fiji signed its first defence alliance with Australia won’t be lost on anyone.”
The ship was used to support China’s test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean in September 2024 – its first such test since 1980.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said he did not believe the test was designed as retaliation for the defence treaty struck between Australia and Fiji.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien criticised the Chinese missile launch, saying: “This is irresponsible, and it is not welcomed.”
The Ocean of Peace defence pact signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva means Australia has added a fourth formal treaty ally on top of the United States, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
The three other Pacific nations with militaries – Tonga, PNG and New Zealand – will be invited to join the pact, underscoring its ambition.
The wording of the agreement, which is similar to the Pukpuk alliance that Australia and PNG struck last year, states that “an armed attack on any of the parties within the Pacific would be dangerous to each other’s peace and security as well as the security of the Pacific, and declares that it would act to meet the common danger, in accordance with its domestic processes”.
Albanese described the signing of the defence alliance and separate Vuvale Union, which covers economic and climate co-operation, as “one of the most significant endeavours Australia has undertaken with any country”.
“The Ocean of Peace alliance introduces a mutual defence obligation, and there is no higher obligation than to come to each other’s aid at a time of need,” he said.
Rabuka said he was pursuing a vision “that places the Pacific not as the periphery of global affairs, but at the centre of shaping norms of co-operation, peace and collective security”.
“The Pacific must continue to assert its role as a principled voice for dialogue, diplomacy and respect for international law in an increasingly fragmented global order,” he said.
China’s 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”.
“This latest demonstration of military power reinforces concerns that the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to reshape the regional order through intimidation, coercion and the projection of military strength rather than through genuine partnership and mutual respect,” Bassi said.
China’s embassy in Canberra was contacted for comment.
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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.From our partners
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