China Puts US Allies On Edge With Rare Missile Test In Pacific

China fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Monday, sparking concerns among longtime U.S. allies in the region.

A Chinese military official called the test part of a routine “annual military training schedule,” but Australia and New Zealand expressed concern that China’s actions disturbed the peace in the Indo-Pacific region, CNN reported. It is not yet known what type of missile China used in the test.

“ launched a strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead toward relevant high seas of the Pacific Ocean, which landed precisely within the designated waters,” Wang Xuemeng, spokesperson for the PLA Navy told CNN. “The operation was in accordance with international law and practice, targeting no specific country or objective.”

China’s navy has two types of submarine missiles: the JL-2 and the JL-3. The JL-3 can fly far enough from waters near China to reach the mainland United States, according to CSIS’ ChinaPower Project.

“The United States monitored China’s test launch from a submarine of an unarmed intercontinental-range ballistic missile, which landed in the southern Pacific Ocean,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “At a time when the United States is working harder than ever to prevent nuclear proliferation, China is doing the opposite. Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup is of great concern to the region and the world.”

“We continue to urge China to engage in meaningful arms control discussions and commit to a regularized notification arrangement for all intercontinental-range ballistic missile and space launches consistent with commitments made by all other P5 members,” Pigott’s statement added. “The United States remains steadfast in our defense commitments to our allies and partners.”

The State Department referred the DCNF to Pigott’s statement when asked for comment. The Department of War referred the DCNF to the State Department.

The White House and U.S. Pacific Command did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

“New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development. We, like our neighbors in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability,” New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, said, according to CNN.

Peters said China informed New Zealand of its plans to launch the missile into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone early Monday morning, per the outlet.

The missile test is “destabilizing to the region” and must be viewed “in the context of a rapid military build-up by China,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, according to CNN.

China sent nearly 80 PLA aircraft near Taiwan during the COMPUTEX Taipei conference between June 2 and June 5, leading to a naval standoff. The conference drew top names in chips and AI, which, according to the event’s exhibitor list, included Intel, Nvidia and SK Group.

“ Xi Jinping has assured President Trump that China will not invade Taiwan, guaranteeing a free and open Indo-Pacific for the rest of the president’s term in office,” a senior White House official told the DCNF in June. Taiwan’s chip industry supplies “more than 90% of leading-edge chip manufacturing” in the world, according to the Department of Commerce.

U.S. intelligence officials suspected Beijing may have sent Iran shoulder-fired missiles in April, during the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran. China buys about 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) found in March.

China fired its first open-ocean ICBM test in over four decades when it fired a nuclear-capable DF-31B missile from Hainan Island into the Pacific near French Polynesia in September 2024, according to The Guardian.

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