China fired an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a dummy warhead from Hainan Island on September 25, sending it roughly 11,500 km across the sky before it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near French Polynesia. It was the country’s first publicly acknowledged ICBM test in international waters in 44 years.
The last time Beijing did something like this was 1980.
What happened and why it matters
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force conducted the launch, which the Chinese Defense Ministry described as a “routine training exercise” conducted in compliance with international law. No specific target was involved, officials said, and the warhead was inert.
The 11,500 km range puts the missile’s reach well beyond the Pacific theater. That distance covers roughly the span from Beijing to the continental United States.
