Beijing, July 6 (EFE).- China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy on Monday successfully launched a strategic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into Pacific waters, a test announced amid rising tensions with Japan and a strengthening Chinese presence in waters near Taiwan.
The projectile, which carried a simulated training warhead, struck its designated maritime target with precision, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Xinhua said the test, conducted at 12:01 p.m. local time (0401 GMT), was part of China’s annual military training plan, which Beijing had previously notified to relevant countries and which “is not directed at any country or specific target.”
The agency added that the launch was carried out by a strategic nuclear submarine of the Chinese navy toward “relevant international waters” of the Pacific, without specifying the missile model, the submarine class or the exact impact zone.
According to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, this was the first known test of a submarine-launched missile by China since 1982 and the first known launch conducted from a nuclear-powered submarine.
Such submarines typically have greater operational autonomy and longer deployment periods than conventional vessels.
New Zealand’s Defense Minister Winston Peters condemned the test.
«This launch is not consistent with regional stability, and peace in the South Pacific,» Peters said Monday.
The test had been anticipated by Australian media, including The Australian, which reported that Chinese officials had warned governments in the region, including Canberra, of an upcoming intercontinental ballistic missile test in the Pacific.
The launch comes amid increased Chinese naval activity in the western Pacific, where Taiwan said Monday that the Chinese navy has four naval groups deployed: one in the South Pacific, two south of the Japanese island of Amami Oshima, and another northeast of the Philippines.
The director of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, Tsai Ming-yen, warned of an “upward trend” in such movements and noted that the July-to-September period is the peak season for routine military exercises and training by the Chinese military.
Two days earlier, the secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, Joseph Wu, said Beijing had mobilized a “record” number of more than 110 navy and coast guard vessels along the first island chain — the line of archipelagos stretching from Japan to the Philippines via Taiwan that separates China’s coastal seas from the open Pacific.
The test also follows Beijing’s announcement in June of new restrictions on exports of dual-use products to 40 Japanese entities, a move China justified by citing Japan’s “remilitarization.”
That same day, Japan also protested maneuvers by Chinese vessels in waters surrounding the island of Yonaguni, located just over 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Taipei.
Relations between Beijing and Tokyo deteriorated sharply after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in late 2025 that a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan could justify intervention by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
The launch also coincides with preparations for new joint naval drills between China and Russia, after Russian state media reported the arrival at the Chinese port of Qingdao of a cruiser, a corvette, a submarine and a rescue vessel from Russia’s Pacific Fleet.
According to those reports, the exercises will run from Monday through July 13. China’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday only that the drills would take place this month in Chinese waters and airspace, followed by a “joint maritime patrol” in “relevant areas” of the Pacific. EFE
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