{"id":1567,"date":"2026-07-10T04:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2026-07-10T04:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T04:14:17","slug":"analysis-chinas-ballistic-missile-launch-was-a-message-for-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1567","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: China\u2019s ballistic missile launch was a message for the US"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BANGKOK (AP) \u2014 When China launched a ballistic missile<\/span> into the South Pacific Ocean on Monday, it was a rare test of a nuclear-capable weapons system that drew international rebuke.<\/p>\n

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Arriving two years after a similar missile launch in international waters in the Pacific, the test by the People\u2019s Liberation Army caught the attention of small island nations whose leaders have increasingly urged bigger countries to stop using the vast oceanic region for power struggles. But Beijing\u2019s message was largely for just one country, experts say: the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important message is the PLA is becoming a powerful military with a very strong strategic nuclear capability,\u201d said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. <\/p>\n

The test, launched from a nuclear-powered submarine, was a demonstration of the sea-based leg of China\u2019s nuclear triad capability, which refers to the ability to have land, sea, and air-based nuclear systems. <\/p>\n

Further, it showed that China\u2019s military has what is called a second-strike capability, said Dominic Meagher, a research fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy in Australia. That means even if China was attacked first, it still has the ability to strike back, because the ability to fire could be anywhere, in the ocean or on land. <\/p>\n

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Beijing said the launch was part of annual exercises, suggesting that it may conduct similar launches in the future. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would see this as a systematic move, not an isolated event,\u201d said K. Tristan Tang, Nonresident Fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, in emailed comments. <\/p>\n

The missile testing comes as China is also racing to build more nuclear-powered submarines. In the past five years, China has been building these types of submarines faster than the U.S., according to a report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank.<\/p>\n

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For countries in the Pacific, launch recalls grim nuclear history<\/h2>\n

However, the use of international waters, specifically treaty-protected waters where nuclear testing is prohibited<\/span>, drew criticism from countries in the region. The waters of the South Pacific Ocean are contested because they\u2019re strategically important and rich with fisheries and minerals.<\/p>\n

For Pacific nations, nuclear testing in particular recalls historical harm. The U.S., the UK and France have all detonated nuclear warheads<\/span> in the Pacific, causing environmental contamination and health issues such as cancers and birth defects that some island nations say they are still recording generations later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose tests resulted in outrage and resulted in treaties to prevent future tests, and that includes the nuclear test ban treaty and the Treaty of Rarotonga, said Meagher. \u201cThese kinds of missile tests haven\u2019t been conducted since.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Monday\u2019s missile landed in the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, which was established by the 1986 Rarotonga accord, which prohibits nuclear weapons throughout the region. China ratified the protocols in 1987 that prohibit testing nuclear weapons within the zone or threatening to use them against signatories with territory in the region.<\/p>\n

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