‘Not Routine': China ‘mischaracterised' 2024 Pacific missile test; New Zealand classified memo revealed
In a move that quietly unsettled the South Pacific, China launched a nuclear-capable missile over international waters near French Polynesia in September 2024 — its first such test in over four decades.
While Beijing publicly called it 'routine military training', internal documents from New Zealand's government paint a very different picture.
According to classified diplomatic memos obtained by AFP, New Zealand officials warned that China misled foreign governments by downplaying the launch. 'It is not routine,' senior diplomats wrote in a note to the foreign affairs minister, pointing out that China had not carried out this type of long-range missile test since the early 1980s.
'We do not want to see this test repeated,' the note added.
New Zealand diplomats further expressed frustration at China's 'mischaracterisation' of the launch. They said the move marked a troubling shift, with Beijing flexing military power in a region where it had previously focused on diplomacy, aid, and infrastructure.
The missile, believed to be an advanced Dong Feng-31, was fired by China's Rocket Force and landed in a section of the ocean that has been part of a nuclear-free zone since 1986.
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While the US, UK, France, Australia, and New Zealand were given vague advance notice, Pacific Island nations — where nuclear testing has left deep scars — were not informed. This lack of transparency drew strong responses across the region.
Fiji urged respect for the Pacific, Australia called the test destabilising, and Japan expressed serious concern. Even Kiribati, one of China's closest allies in the Pacific, said the ocean should not be used as a weapons testing zone.
Also read:
China adding 100 nuclear warheads annually: SIPRI
Analysts say the missile test was a clear message to the West. Harvard's Hui Zhang wrote that it served as a warning to Washington about China's nuclear deterrence, especially in the context of rising tensions over Taiwan.
'The test shows that the Rocket Force has an operational and credible nuclear force that can help ensure China's ability to maintain a strong nuclear deterrent,' he wrote in 2024 for the Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists.
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