China's 'Routine' Test Launch Was Anything But

China hasn't test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters in more than four decades—until now. The AP reports that China launched an ICBM with a dummy warhead on Wednesday, and that the missile fell into the Pacific Ocean as it was intended to, according to the nation's Defense Ministry. It's not clear what kind of missile, or what its flight path was, but what is clear is that this type of test isn't the norm: Usually when China is testing out weaponry, it fires from the east toward its own western deserts, not beyond its borders, says James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Although Beijing is insisting the test launch was "routine" and part of its "annual training," experts are saying it's anything but, reports the BBC. "They don't do this sort [of] thing either routinely or annually," nuclear weapons expert Ankit Panda wrote in a thread on X. The last time China sent an ICBM flying into international space was in 1980, when it sent a missile into the South Pacific. "When they haven't done something for 44 years and then they do it, that's significant," Acton tells the AP.

Chinese state media also claims that China had "informed the countries concerned in advance," per the BBC. However, neighboring Japan for one said it had received "no notice" of the launch. Drew Thompson, a visiting research fellow at Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, notes "there are high-levels of tension between China and Japan, [the] Philippines, and of course perpetual tension with Taiwan." Thompson adds: "This launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone." The New York Times notes that China possesses more than 130 ICBMs, with the ability to carry 240 warheads. (More China stories.)