US slams China’s submarine-launched ballistic missile test

The United States has chastised China for launching an unarmed intercontinental-range ballistic missile, which landed in the southern Pacific Ocean.

“Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons build-up is of great concern to the region and the world,” the State Department asserted on Monday.

Washington noted that even as the United States is working harder than ever to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, Beijing is doing the opposite.

The U.S. urged China to commit to a formalized notification arrangement for all ICBM and space launches consistent with the pledges made by the P5—United Nations Security Council members.

China’s test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in the Great Sea elicited backlash from Australia and New Zealand. Both nations said the action threatened regional peace and stability.

The People’s Liberation Army Navy had announced that a dummy warhead carried by the “strategic missile” landed precisely within the designated waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Senior Capt. Wang Xuemeng, a PLAN spokesperson, confirmed the test was a tradition in China’s annual military training program, adding that “relevant nations” were informed in advance.

The operation, according to a statement by Wang, was in accordance with international law and procedure and targeted “no specific country or objective.”

The launch was a “routine arrangement” and consistent with customary international practice, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters.

CNN reported that the missile travelled across the Exclusive Economic Zones of Micronesia, Nauru, Kiribati, and Tuvalu, and touched down around the EEZ border of either Kiribati or Tuvalu.