China missile test a nuclear ‘message’ to Australia

China is sending Australia a “message” about its nuclear capabilities, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles has warned, as the region digests Beijing’s ballistic missile test in the South Pacific.

Chinese state media reported a nuclear submarine fired the missile at noon on Monday (Beijing time) and that it “landed precisely within the designated waters”.

It came just hours after Australia and Fiji inked a mutual defence pact that could be extended to other Pacific countries.

Mr Marles on Tuesday said the test “implies something about the range that China is building in terms of deploying nuclear capabilities”.

He said that was the concern rather than the timing coinciding with the Fiji alliance, which he said could have been a coincidence.

“What’s significant here is a long-range missile test and one which China itself has said could be nuclear-capable, launched from a submarine,” Mr Marles told Sky News.

“That’s the message that’s being sent. The test is a display of an extended range that China now has in terms of deploying a nuclear weapon, and that’s obviously very concerning.”

Anthony Albanese, who landed in the Solomon Islands for talks on Tuesday, also said the core concern was that China launched “a nuclear capable intercontinental ballistic missile fired from a nuclear-powered submarine”.

“That is of real concern because what we need is less nuclear weapons. Certainly not more,” the Prime Minister said.

“And the fact that this test took place yesterday with very little notice is of real concern.”

Mr Albanese added that the missile fired could “cause considerable damage were it to be weaponised”.

Australian officials have formally protested the test both in Canberra and in Beijing.

Government response ‘appropriate’

Opposition defence spokesman James Paterson echoed Mr Albanese and Mr Marles, saying “the broader picture here is that China is engaging in behaviour which it knows is threatening”.

“One of the reasons why militaries conduct exercises like these is for the demonstration effect,” he told Nine’s Today.

“They want others to know they’ve got the capability to do so, and their decision to do so in the Pacific is particularly unwelcome because the Pacific Island leaders have made very clear they want their region of the world to be a conflict-free zone, and they also want it to be nuclear-free zone.”

Senator Paterson also said the government response had been “appropriate”.

“They should make clear, as they have, that they don’t approve of what the Chinese government has done here in our region of the world, and I think it’s reasonable for them to seek an explanation from the (People’s Republic of China) about why they did this,” he said.

“We were given incredibly minimal notice of this exercise – just two hours.”

In Beijing, the Chinese government played down the test overnight and urged people not to “interpret too much” from it despite it being the first known Chinese submarine-based missile launch in more than four decades.

“This is a routine military exercise,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

“It does not target any third party or targets, and it’s been notified in advance to the relevant countries and in accordance with international law and international practice.”

US ‘steadfast’ in commitment to allies

The missile test has not been interpreted that way across the globe.

Noting that Washington had “monitored” the launch, the US State Department said Washington was “steadfast” in its military commitments to allies in the region.

“At a time when the United States is working harder than ever to prevent nuclear proliferation, China is doing the opposite,” a spokesperson said.

“Beijing’s rapid and opaque nuclear weapons build-up 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 regularized notification arrangement for all intercontinental-range ballistic missile and space launches consistent with commitments made by all other P5 members.

“The United States remains steadfast in our defense commitments to our allies and partners.”

Posting an image of the missile’s trajectory on social media, Taiwan’s national security chief Joseph Wu said China had “just proved itself again to be a bully on the block”.

The test also sounded alarm bells in Europe, with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte saying it made the case for “close co-operation”, as North Atlantic and Indo-Pacific theatres are “getting more intertwined”.

“What happens in the Indo-Pacific is relevant to what is happening in the transatlantic, and we see it also with the war with Ukraine, where China, North Korea and Iran are key enablers of Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.

“This again is evidence that we cannot be naive, and I can assure you that we are on it.”