After a year of purging rocket force generals opposing the use of force against Taiwan, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) toward the Pacific, indicating the crucial role of nuclear missiles in the CCP’s Taiwan invasion plan. Experts pointed out that a Taiwan Strait crisis will almost certainly involve the CCP’s nuclear threat.
On September 25, the CCP unusually admitted to test-firing an ICBM. The CCP’s Ministry of National Defense stated that the ICBM carrying a training dummy warhead landed in the Pacific’s “designated area.” According to the CCP’s official media, “China Daily,” this was the first such test conducted by China in over forty years.
Citing military analysts, the Hong Kong-based “South China Morning Post” deduced that the missile launched by the CCP this time was likely the Dongfeng-31AG. The Dongfeng-31 has been in service since 2006, capable of carrying a single warhead or 3 to 4 smaller warheads. The missile launched by the CCP this time carried a dummy warhead, flying 12,000 kilometers from the Hainan launch site, passing near the Philippines and Guam before landing near the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific.
The Dongfeng-31 comes in versions Dongfeng-31A and Dongfeng-31AG, with a range of up to 13,200 kilometers, enabling it to strike the US mainland.
Former Director of Operations at the US Indo-Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, Carl Schuster, told Epoch Times that the CCP has had intercontinental ballistic missiles for about 40 years. The CCP’s launch of ICBMs this time serves as a form of intimidation.
“Many years ago (I think it was 40 years ago), a CCP general said the US would never sacrifice Los Angeles for Taiwanese independence. This missile proves that the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force can reach Los Angeles and other parts of the US West Coast. This test sends a strategic political signal that China’s nuclear capability is ready, capable, and cannot be ignored.”
During a visit to the Central Military Commission’s Joint Operations Command Center in November 2022, Xi Jinping instructed the military to “focus all energy on fighting, and all efforts on preparing for combat.”
In April 2023, US Lieutenant Colonel Kyle Amundson and US Army Captain Dain Eggley wrote in the “Indo-Pacific Affairs Journal” that CCP Chairman Xi Jinping had a strategic window within the 2030 timeframe, and if peace reunification was not achieved before then, they would forcibly annex Taiwan under favorable conditions.
Xi Jinping’s extensive purging of rocket force generals opposing the use of force against Taiwan is due to the Rocket Force’s significant role in the invasion plan. The Rocket Force, as the CCP’s fourth branch, is directly led and commanded by the Central Military Commission, equipping itself mainly with ground-to-ground conventional and strategic missiles, responsible for tasks such as conventional missile target strikes, nuclear strikes, and strategic nuclear retaliation missile operations.
Former Acting Undersecretary of Defense at the US Department of Defense, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the US Marine Corps University, and Dean of the US Marine Corps War College, James Anderson, wrote in March this year that despite Beijing’s long-held policy of not…
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