INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY
Japan said it had not been given advance warning of the launch. Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its territory, expressed “solemn condemnation”.
Australia said it was seeking “an explanation”, while New Zealand called the launch “an unwelcome and concerning development”.
French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson said “the missile fell not far from … the Marquesas Islands”, an archipelago that is part of its exclusive economic zone.
“The Chinese authorities previously notified their French counterparts of this test,” the French High Commission said in a statement, adding that France would make its position on the test known.
The Pentagon also said the United States received “some advanced notification of this ICBM test”, describing the notification as “a step in the right direction” that would help prevent “misperception or miscalculation”.
China’s military released imagery of the missile on Thursday that showed the projectile soaring into the air in a plume of smoke from an undisclosed location.
Analysts said the imagery suggested the launch could be of a Dongfeng-31 AG intercontinental ballistic missile, unveiled during a military parade in 2017.
