The Trump administration on Monday criticized China for conducting a test launch of a provocative submarine-launched, nuclear-capable missile that the State Department called a sign of Beijing’s continuing arms buildup.
China carried out the test launch on Monday of what analysts say is likely an advanced JL-2 missile or new JL-3 multi-warhead submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), a strategic weapon shown during a military parade in September.
A spokesman for People’s Liberation Army navy provided no details on the type of submarine or missile involved, or the launch and splashdown locations, or the distance traveled.
PLA Sr. Capt. Wang Xuemeng, the spokesman, said the test was a “routine arrangement” during annual military training and asserted that China provided prior notification of the launch to relevant nations.
The test warhead “precisely hit the designated target waters in the Pacific Ocean,” he said.
“The test complied with international law and established international practices and was not targeted at any specific country or target,” Capt. Wang stated.
The launch rattled regional neighbors Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan that condemned the test, according to statements from those governments.
The unarmed missile traveled from an area around the northeast China coast and landed in the southern Pacific Ocean, State Department spokesman 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,” Mr. Pigott said.
“Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup is of great concern to the region and the world,” he said.
“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 the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — all nuclear powers, he said.
The administration remains “steadfast” in U.S. defense commitments to allies and partners in the region, Mr. Pigott added.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell said the missile test is a clear sign that China’s military is abandoning a decades-long Chinese policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons in a conflict.
“The PLA Navy’s test launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile deep into the South Pacific is a clear and unambiguous declaration from the Chinese Communist Party of its commitment to a first strike nuclear capability,” said Capt. Fanell, a former Pacific Fleet intelligence director.
Despite years of repeated assertions of fielding a limited second-strike strategy, the test launch from a submarine, most likely an improved Jin-class/Type-094A submarine “differs substantially from the PLA Strategic Rocket Force’s test launch of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile in 2024,” he said.
The test firing also took place as the U.S. military’s largest international military exercises, known as RIMPAC, are underway near Hawaii.
China military affairs expert Rick Fisher said the missile most likely was a JL-3, based on images of the missile disclosed on Chinese social media.
Mr. Fisher, with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said Chinese officials have said the missile is expected to be armed with multiple nuclear warheads, with each missile submarine carrying 12 JL-3 missiles, each capable of launching between five and eight Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) warheads.
“In order to sustain the credibility of its extended nuclear deterrent, it is necessary for the U.S. to begin re-MIRV-ing its Minuteman-III ICBMs, to begin talking to South Korea and Japan about whether the U.S. should forward deploy B-61 tactical nuclear bombs, and then move to accelerate the development of new low yield nuclear warheads for new U.S. theater missiles,” Mr. Fisher said.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, criticized the Chinese for “continuously increasing its defense spending at a high rate without sufficient transparency and expanding its nuclear missile capabilities, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, rapidly and extensively.”
The Pentagon has warned that China’s rapid expansion of its nuclear forces is a “breakout” requiring an immediate response and seemingly having no end.
China notified the Japanese government of the test about a half hour before it took place, prompting the government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to urge China to “rethink” its planned test firing to avoid threatening Japan’s security, according to a government statement reported by Kyodo News Agency.
Chinese authorities on Sunday notified the Japan coast guard of the areas designated for potential missile debris, including within Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Pacific, south of the western prefecture of Wakayama.
In Taiwan, the presidential office condemned the missile launch as undermining international peace and stability.
Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo said in a statement that Beijing “sought to intimidate the international community” with the missile test.
Ms. Kuo also called on China to “exercise restraint, abide by the rules-based international order and immediately cease its irresponsible unilateral actions.”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong called the submarine missile test “destabilizing to the region.” The Australian government also was notified in advance of the test.
“Australia has been clear that this proposal, this proposed test, is in the context of a rapid military buildup by China, which is lacking in the transparency and reassurance as to intent that the region expects,” Ms. Wong told reporters in Fiji, where a defense pact between Australia and the South Pacific island chain was concluded.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his nation was “deeply concerned” by the test firing of a nuclear-capable weapon, noting the flight test is part of a recurring pattern by China.
“We are also concerned that this now seems to be a recurring pattern by China, following its test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the South Pacific in 2024,” Mr. Peters said added. “We as a region should not sit by and allow such tests to become normalized or routine.”
The missile test also comes as military forces of both China and Russia launched a joint naval exercise just off the northern port of Qingdao that state media said will involve anti-submarine warfare drills and air defense tests.
The underwater open-ocean test firing is the first from a Chinese missile submarine since 1988, and the first known one from a modern vessel.
Earlier submarine missile firings included a JL-1 missile in 1981 from an already obsolete Soviet-made Golf-class diesel-powered submarine.
Subsequent missile launches were carried out from China’s early nuclear-powered Xia-class missile submarine in 1985 with the last one in 1988.
Online military analysts traced the trajectory of the missile from waters in the Bohai Sea southward to an impact area in the Pacific.
Mr. Pigott, the State Department spokesman, did not elaborate on how the test related to Chinese nuclear proliferation.
However, a Congressional Research Service report made public in May said Chinese companies were continuing to sell nuclear weapons and missile-related systems and goods to Russia, North Korea and Iran.
The Chinese government halted direct involvement in nuclear-related proliferation and transfers of complete missile systems, the report said.
“However, Chinese entities have continued to engage in proliferation, according to the U.S. government, which also has repeatedly expressed concerns with regard to weaknesses in China’s export control system,” the May 19 report stated.
