John MacDonald: Seeing China's missile test for what it is

Author: John MacDonald,
Publish Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2026, 12:59pm

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Former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp has come out firing today, saying that China’s nuclear-capable missile test yesterday was smack bang inside the South Pacific nuclear-free zone.

Just hours after giving the New Zealand Government a heads-up, China launched a long-range ballistic missile from a submarine into the area. It’s not saying where it was launched from, nor where it landed.

I get where Wayne Mapp is coming from. But there’s a technicality. Which I’ll get to.

It’s being viewed by some as China retaliating to Australia and Fiji signing a new defence alliance, which also happened yesterday.

This is called the Ocean of Peace Alliance.

Anthony Albanese was in Fiji yesterday for that. He’s also heading to the Solomon Islands to continue negotiating a treaty there.

And, when he gets back to Canberra, he’s going to be hosting leaders from Tonga, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
So, if China was sending a message yesterday, it won’t just be aimed at the Fiji agreement. It’ll also be ticking-off Albanese for his South Pacific charm offensive.

But there’s a chance here that the people jumping up and down about what China did yesterday might look somewhat hypocritical, given the United States did its own missile testing in the South Pacific back in March.

There’s also the fine print in the South Pacific nuclear-free zone agreement. It was originally signed by Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island countries in 1985 and bans the use, testing and possession of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific area.

China signed up to parts of it two years later, in 1987, but didn’t agree to the no-testing part.

So, technically, it was fully within its rights to do what it did yesterday.

Besides which, it was a dummy missile.

Which is why I think we need to calm the farm and see it for what it is.

It’s just a bit of flexing, and the Pacific region is under no greater threat from China than it was before this happened.

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