SpaceWar.com reports: “China said it test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Wednesday, firing it into the Pacific Ocean in its first such exercise in decades.

The launch sparked protests from other countries in the region, with China’s neighbour Japan saying it had not been given advance notice and expressing ‘serious concern’ about Beijing’s military build-up.

Beijing has stepped up its nuclear development and boosted defence spending in recent years, with the Pentagon last October warning China was developing its arsenal more quickly than the United States had anticipated.

China held more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and is likely to have more than 1,000 by 2030, it said.

On Wednesday, the Chinese military’s Rocket Force ‘launched an ICBM… carrying a dummy warhead to the high seas in the Pacific Ocean at 08:44 on September 25, and the missile fell into expected sea areas’, the defence ministry said in a statement.

An analyst told AFP such tests were very rare…”