Chinese defense authorities on Wednesday said the missile carried a dummy warhead and landed in the intended area of the sea. Beijing said the launch was part of routine training and was not aimed at any particular country or target.
The launch came at a time of increasing wariness over China's nuclear arms capabilities. Last year, U.S. defense authorities issued a report saying that China is "developing new ICBMs that will significantly improve its nuclear-capable missile forces."
While information on China's missile tests is limited, it has been years since its last known ICBM trial, and many reports say it last fired one into the sea in 1980.
Tong Zhao, a senior fellow with the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Nikkei Asia that the ICBM test was an effort to demonstrate that despite various corruption scandals among high-ranking figures, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force remains a well-trained, combat-ready outfit.
"The Chinese political leadership is now keen to address international doubts about the operational competence of its strategic deterrent forces," Zhao said, adding, "Beijing believes that any perceived weakness in its strategic military power could encourage more assertive policies from the U.S. and its Western allies against China."
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense stated on the day of the ICBM launch that it had detected "intensive missile shooting and other training activities carried out by the Chinese army" in waters off the island.
The ministry added that it was using "joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance methods to closely control the activities" while dispatching "mission aircraft, ships and shore-based missile systems to respond accordingly." It declined to provide further details.
"China's purpose is to demonstrate the ability of ballistic missiles to attack maritime targets with a range of at least 4,000 kilometers," said Shen Ming-shih, acting deputy CEO of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think tank. "The purpose is to intimidate Taiwan and disrupt the elections in the United States and Japan."
U.S. voters will go to polls in November to select a new president, while Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party is set to choose a replacement for departing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday.
Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said the launch signals to Washington that "direct intervention in a conflict across the Taiwan Strait would involve the American homeland being vulnerable to attack."
"To U.S. allies in Asia, China's provocative test, conducted during its expansive regional military exercises, demonstrates its capabilities to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously," Easley said.
That China conducted a test is not such a surprise, but the timing was noteworthy, said Sebastien Philippe, a research scholar with Princeton University's program on science and global security.
"It happened while the United Nations General Assembly is in session and the day after [U.S. President Joe] Biden spoke. It is clearly a signal to the U.S. and the international community about China's renewed nuclear ambitions," he said.
Given the rarity of this kind of launch, Wednesday's move would have been months, if not years, in the making, Philippe estimated. "But the launch window -- when to launch -- you can adjust within weeks or months. The timing was certainly not decided by accident."
Ja Ian Chong, assistant professor of political science at National University of Singapore, told Nikkei Asia that the launch could also be intended to bolster Chinese national pride ahead of the Oct. 1 National Day holiday, which celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. received advance notification of the ICBM launch from China and that Washington had monitored the test.
She described the notification as "a step in the right direction" and said it can help prevent misperceptions and miscalculations. The Pentagon will continue to press for a more regularized notification arrangement for ballistic missile and space launches, Singh said.
Washington's East Asian allies Japan and South Korea did not report having been notified in advance of China's launch. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said that the missile had not entered Japanese airspace. "We will make every effort to collect and analyze the necessary information," Hayashi told reporters on Wednesday.
Nikkei Asia has contacted South Korea's foreign ministry seeking comment.
Last month, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed to set up a phone call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. But since then, the U.S. has announced a proposal to ban Chinese software and hardware that allow cars to communicate externally or enable autonomous driving capabilities.
The administration is also working with Japan and the Netherlands to coordinate export controls on semiconductor technology, especially chipmaking tools. A Chinese diplomat described the actions as "poisoning the water" and making it difficult for Xi to go ahead with the Biden call.
Philippe said the key takeaway from the ICBM test was that it showed a range of 11,500 km. "Applying the same range from the new missile silo field in Ordos, China, the entire United States will be within the range," he said.
The more intimidating posture from China could spur U.S. allies in the region to move ever closer to Washington, as the governments in Tokyo and Seoul have done in recent years. Choo Jae-woo, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Kyunghee University, said China's public show of force will further incentivize the South Korean government to continue bolstering defense cooperation with the U.S.
"China is raising the stakes," he said. "The launch gives the Yoon [Suk Yeol] administration more justification for pursuing its Indo-Pacific strategy. China is pushing the envelope and South Korea is being cornered, so [the launch] could present another long-lasting complication to the relationship with Seoul."
Additional reporting by Yuichi Nitta in Tokyo and Thompson Chau in Taipei.