Australia has criticised China for failing to give enough notice of its long-range ballistic missile test, which appears to have crossed over the Philippines and landed near Nauru, as the Trump administration accused Beijing of pursuing an opaque and rapid nuclear weapons build-up.
Senior Labor and Coalition figures united to condemn the missile launch, while saying they did not believe it was a direct response to the defence alliance Australia signed with Fiji just hours earlier.
China’s People’s Liberation Army is believed to have fired either a JL-2 or JL-3 intercontinental ballistic missile fitted with a dummy warhead. The missiles have ranges of 9000 and 12,000 kilometres respectively.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in the Solomon Islands on Tuesday for meetings with counterpart Matthew Wale, who has proposed a Pacific-wide security pact that would stymie China’s efforts to expand its influence in the region.
The US State Department said it had monitored China’s submarine test launch of an unarmed intercontinental-range ballistic missile, which landed in the southern Pacific Ocean on Monday afternoon.
“At a time when the United States is working harder than ever to prevent nuclear proliferation, China is doing the opposite,” spokesman Thomas Pigott said.
“Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons buildup is of great concern to the region and the world.
“We continue to urge China to engage in meaningful arms control discussions and commit to a regularised notification arrangement for all intercontinental-range ballistic missile and space launches consistent with commitments made by all other P5 members [permanent members of the United Nations Security Council].”
Pacific Minister Pat Conroy rejected Beijing’s claim that the test complied with international law and practice, saying: “It’s not consistent with The Hague convention on ballistic missile testing, which would require more notice and greater information provided to countries.
“We would continue to call on China to abide by The Hague convention.”
Conroy said Australian authorities had been tracking the Chinese Navy task force that launched a missile, meaning the launch was likely planned well before the finalisation of the treaty with Fiji.
“I think it’s more likely to be coincidence rather than linked, but obviously that’s ultimately a question for the Chinese government,” he told ABC radio.
The missile fired from a submarine off the coast of China, crossed over the Philippines and landed near the island nation of Nauru, according to the secretary-general of Taiwan’s National Security Council, Joseph Wu.
He posted a map on X in the early hours of Tuesday morning showing what he said was the trajectory of the ICBM in a post labelling China a “bully”.
Wu’s post said China had fired a JL-2 missile while China’s state-owned Global Times quoted military analysts saying it was likely a newer and longer-range JL-3 missile, which was formally unveiled at a lavish military parade in Beijing last year.
Maritime expert Jennifer Parker said she believed it was most likely a JL-2 missile.
Acting prime minister Richard Marles declined to confirm the missile’s location in an interview on the ABC on Tuesday, other than to say “it wasn’t particularly close to Australia”.
Marles said Australia was warned about the test just two hours before launch, and that the action signalled China may be “extending” its nuclear weapons range.
“This is a long-range missile test, which China itself said would be nuclear capable, which has been launched from a submarine, which also implies something in terms of extending China’s range to deploy nuclear weapons,” Marles said in another interview on Today.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the test-firing by China of a missile from a nuclear-powered submarine into the Pacific sent a message to the alliance.
“This, again, is evidence that we cannot be naive,” Rutte told reporters on the eve of a NATO leaders’ summit in Ankara. “And we are not.”
Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson told ABC radio: “I share the concerns that Pat Conroy just aired on your program, that it is not consistent with best practice, that there was very minimal notice given of just a couple of hours and very little details given about where it would be fired from and where it would be fired to.”
Asked about the new pact between Australia and Fiji, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that “China doesn’t engage in geopolitical rivalry or seek selfish political gains, and it’s hoped that Australia will truly respect the independence of Pacific island nations”.
Wang Xuemeng, a spokesman for China’s People’s Liberation Army navy, said on Monday that the missile test launch was “a routine arrangement of the Chinese side’s annual military training” which “complies with international law and international practices and is not targeted at any specific country or target”.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong told ABC radio: “Australia’s view is this test is destabilising for the region and raises the risk of miscalculation … We do not believe this test is consistent with the view that Pacific leaders have very clearly expressed – that this, the Pacific, should be an ocean of peace.”
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Angus Dalton is the science reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
