Australia and New Zealand condemn China over intercontinental missile test

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China on Monday test-fired an intercontinental missile from a submarine in the southern Pacific Ocean, the first such launch in two years, drawing immediate criticism from regional powers.

In a statement, the People’s Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN, said a nuclear-powered sub fired a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” just after midday Beijing time. The launch was “not directed at any specific country or target,” and the missile “landed precisely within the designated waters,” the Navy said, without specifying where these were.

China previously test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile in the Pacific in September, 2024, the first such launch in decades in a region where many countries have become increasingly alarmed at Beijing’s growing military footprint.

Speaking Monday, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was “deeply concerned” by the latest missile test, which he described as “not consistent with regional stability and peace in the South Pacific.”

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Regional governments, including New Zealand, were informed of the test shortly before it happened, Mr. Peters said.

“It appears that despite our long-standing concerns about this type of activity, China carried out the test within hours of informing us.”

The missile was fired into the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, a region established by the Treaty of Rarotonga, to which China is a partial signatory. Protocol III of the treaty, which Beijing endorsed in 1987, calls on signatories “not to test nuclear explosive devices” within the zone, which stretches from Australia to French Polynesia in the east and New Zealand in the south.

Monday’s test “goes against the object and intent of that Treaty,” Mr. Peters said. “New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development. We, like our neighbours in other Pacific countries, have no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability.”

Speaking in Fiji, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also criticized the test, saying it risked “destabilizing the region.”

Monday’s launch comes in the wake of a “rapid military build-up by China” that is lacking in “transparency and reassurance as to intent,” Ms. Wong added, and “underscores the imperative of countries of the region to work together to ensure that it is Pacific countries who determine our futures.”

Ms. Wong was in the Pacific island nation to finalize a security pact and mutual defence treaty between Suva and Canberra, part of a strategy by Australia in recent years to reassert itself as a regional security guarantor sparked by concerns over China’s growing influence with Pacific nations.

Those efforts have been criticized by Beijing, which has accused Canberra of sabotaging China’s relations with Fiji and other countries, and fostering a “Cold War mentality.”

After Australia last week joined other Five Eyes nations in warning against Chinese espionage activities, the state-run Global Times newspaper warned ties between Canberra and Beijing could be damaged.

“Recent petty moves by relevant Australian authorities inevitably recall the unpleasant period in China-Australia relations a few years ago,” the Chinese paper said, referring to a five-year period leading up to the 2022 Australian election, when ties entered a deep freeze and Australia was hit with severe trade sanctions.

“The lessons of the past are clear enough: it would be unwise to wait until running into a brick wall before deciding to turn back.”

Separate to Monday’s missile test, the PLAN also kicked off military exercises with Russia off the coast of Qingdao, in east China’s Shandong Province.

The drills, dubbed “Joint Sea 2026,” will be carried out in three phases, including “joint reconnaissance, air and missile defence, as well as training in the actual use of weapons,” according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.