China fires ICBM into Pacific Ocean in first such public test in decades as regional tensions flare

China says it successfully fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, a rare public test that comes amid growing tensions with the United States and its regional allies.

An ICBM carrying a dummy warhead was launched at 8:44 a.m. Beijing time and fell into a designated area in the high seas of the Pacific Ocean, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in a statement. It did not specify the missile’s flight path or landing location.

The ministry said the launch, by the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force, was part of its routine annual training and was not directed at any country or target. It comes as China and Russia conduct joint naval exercises in nearby seas close to Japan.

China “notified relevant countries in advance,” state news agency Xinhua said in a separate report, without specifying who it notified.

The launch “effectively tested the performance of weapons and equipment as well as the training level of the troops, and achieved the expected objectives,” Xinhua reported.

This is the first time China has publicly announced a successful ICBM test in the Pacific Ocean in more than four decades.

In 1980, China celebrated the successful test of its first ICBM, fired into the South Pacific from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the country’s northwestern desert.

Under leader Xi Jinping, China has bolstered its nuclear capabilities and revamped the PLA’s Rocket Force, an elite branch overseeing the country’s fast-expanding arsenal of nuclear and ballistic missiles.

In the past few years, satellite photos have shown the construction of what appears to be hundreds of silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles in China’s deserts, and the US Defense Department is predicting exponential growth in the number of nuclear warheads in Beijing’s arsenal in the next decade.

China held more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of 2023 and will probably have over 1,000 warheads by 2030, the Pentagon said in its annual report on Beijing’s military last year.