A chorus of criticism from the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific has followed China’s testing of a ballistic missile in the Pacific Ocean on Monday. 

Few details of the test itself are available. Senior Captain Wang Xuemeng, a spokesman for China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) navy, confirmed that a Chinese nuclear submarine had launched a strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead which “accurately landed within the predetermined sea area” in the Pacific. 

Wang described the missile test as routine, adding: “It complies with international law and international practices and is not targeted at any specific country or target.” China’s state-owned Global Times cited Chinese defence experts as saying the test was likely of the JuLang-3—the country’s most advanced submarine-launched missile.

The immediate reaction of US military allies in the region has been censure even as the Trump administration accelerates the decade-long preparations for war with China through a vast military build-up and a strengthening of alliances and bases throughout the Indo-Pacific. 

The Australian Labor government has played a central role in aggressively bullying and bribing countries in the region to align with Washington’s war plans, as well as opening its military bases to American military forces.

Australian foreign minister Penny Wong branded the missile test “as destabilising to the region.” Wong and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were in Fiji as part of a diplomatic offensive to block Chinese influence in the Pacific Island states. 

Albanese signed a formal military alliance with Fiji on Monday—cynically named the Ocean of Peace Alliance. The document commits the countries to “act to meet the common danger, in accordance with its domestic processes” in the event of “an armed attack on any of the parties within the Pacific.” 

The purpose of the document is not “peace” but the formal integration of Fiji and other South Pacific states into the US-led network of military arrangements. It also contains a provision that allows Fiji and Australia to “invite any other Pacific state” to join the alliance. That could include Papua New Guinea, which signed a treaty with Australia last year, New Zealand and Tonga—the only other countries in the South West Pacific with militaries.

Prime Minister Albanese reinforced the message in the Solomon Islands yesterday declaring that there was “no doubt that this is a provocative act by China, which does destabilise the region, and therefore we will put forward our strong view.” He criticised China for not giving more warning of the missile test.

Albanese was in the Solomons to exploit the shift by the country’s new prime minister Matthew Wale, elected in May, away from the orientation of previous governments to China. The two countries are already in talks over a defence arrangement. The US and Australia reacted angrily to a defence agreement signed by China with the Solomons in 2022 with condemnation and threats of military intervention. 

The Australian government was far from alone in criticising the Chinese missile test.

• New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters declared that he was “deeply concerned,” adding: “New Zealand considers this an unwelcome and concerning development… [and had] no interest in China using the South Pacific as a testing site for missile capability.” He bluntly warned: “We as a region should not sit by and allow such tests to become normalised or routine.”
• The Japanese government said that it had “conveyed its serious concern regarding the intensification of China’s military activities” and had urged China to reconsider the launch after receiving warning of the test. Japan, which houses US military bases and more than 50,000 American personnel, is rapidly remilitarising—doubling military spending and acquiring offensive weaponry.
• The Philippines condemned the missile launch as “a reckless display of military power that shows little regard for smaller countries… serves no peaceful purpose and is a calculated act of taunting and provocation.” Like Australia, New Zealand and Japan, the Philippines parrots Washington’s propaganda about Chinese “expansionism” and “aggression,” while expanding military collaboration with the US and opening the door for an American military build-up on its soil.

The US State Department said it had monitored China’s missile test then absurdly declared: “At a time when the United States is working harder than ever to prevent nuclear proliferation, China is doing the opposite… We continue to urge China to engage in meaningful arms control discussions.”

In reality, US imperialism is the most destabilising factor in world politics today. Its methods of so-called arms control are not through negotiations but through war. The US and its NATO allies are expanding its war against Russia in Ukraine. And, on the pretext of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the US and Israel are waging an illegal war of aggression that has killed thousands of Iranian civilians.

Barely mentioned in the outpouring of criticism in the political establishment and media throughout the region is the fact that the US military regularly conducts ballistic missile tests in the Pacific Ocean. Two launches have taken place just this year. On March 3 and again on May 20, an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California into the Marshall Islands region. 

By comparison, China has only ever conducted three missile tests into the Pacific Ocean—in 1980, 2024 and the latest this week.

In addition to the cacophony of criticism of China, the media is replete with speculation by various security analysts as to the military significance of Monday’s test—the first of a submarine-launched missile into the Pacific. Their chief concern is the expansion of China’s nuclear capability. In reality, however, the US nuclear arsenal dwarfs that of China in size and sophisticated delivery systems. 

The intense focus on Chinese military only betrays the fact that the Trump administration, already mired in war in Ukraine and the Middle East is preparing for war against China—sooner rather than later. Mired in a deepening economic and political crisis, US imperialism is recklessly seeking to shore up its world domination through its military might and plunging humanity towards a global catastrophe.