BEIJING \u2014 China’s Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday that the military successfully test-fired a new type of missile into waters near the Korean Peninsula\u00a0\u2014\u00a0an announcement that comes amid Chinese anger over the deployment in South Korea of a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system.
The Chinese weapon tested was likely a DF-26 intermediate range missile being developed to sink warships, including U.S. aircraft carriers, said Song Zhongping, an expert on military affairs and commentator for Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV. The Bohai Gulf is the preferred location for such tests because it is Chinese territorial waters, Song said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beijing opposes the deployment to South Korea of the United States’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known by its acronym THAAD, because its radars are allegedly capable of peering deep into China, allowing the U.S. and its allies to better detect rocket launches and aircraft movements. Washington says the system is necessary to guard against North Korean missile threats and calls China’s concerns unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Wednesday that China had no intention of softening its opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“China’s position on the issue of THAAD is clear and consistent. We hope South Korea can pay high attention to China’s concerns and handle the relevant issue in a proper way,” Geng said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the DF-26 could be useful against THAAD, China also has several other missiles that are up to the task, Song said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It hasn’t much to do with THAAD directly, but it is a kind of [a] warning” to South Korea and the U.S., Song said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chinese weapon tested was likely a DF-26 intermediate range missile being developed to sink warships, including U.S. aircraft carriers, said Song Zhongping, an expert on military affairs and commentator for Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":15,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2200],"class_list":["post-135619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"42VML4T2NNBKTH34KVGYRKPSH4","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2017\/05\/10\/china-says-it-successfully-tests-new-type-of-missile\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n