China test-fires ICBM into international waters

China test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Wednesday morning into the Pacific, marking the first known Chinese test into international waters in four decades.

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense said in a brief statement that the missile was carrying a dummy warhead when it landed in the Pacific.

“The missile fell into expected sea areas,” the statement reads. “This test launch is a routine arrangement in our annual training plan. It is in line with international law and international practice and is not directed against any country or target.”

The last known ICBM test from China that fell into international waters was in 1980.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a thread on the social platform X that most Chinese ICBM launches take place over the country’s territory, not in international waters.

“[The People’s Republic of China’s] statement description of this specific test as ‘routine’ and ‘annual’ seems odd given that they don’t do this sort thing either routinely or annually,” Panda wrote.

Tensions have soared between the U.S. and China recently amid clashes between Beijing and the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea, and Chinese threats against the self-governing island nation of Taiwan.

The U.S. also routinely tests its ICBM, the Minuteman III, with the last launch in June from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.