China Conducts Long-Range Nuclear Missile Drill

Local Editor

China's military has released images of an intercontinental ballistic missile with enough range to reach the United States, as Beijing is involved in a series of rows threatening to embroil Washington.

The pictures of Chinese soldiers test-firing a Dongfeng-31 missile, which is said by experts to be able to carry nuclear warheads 8,000 kilometers appeared in the People's Liberation Army Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

Further images showing soldiers dressed in protective suits, suggesting that the drill was simulating the launch of an armed warhead, were also posted on the sohu.com news portal, attributed to the newspaper.
Sohu.com said it was the first time that images of such an exercise had been released.

China is embroiled in a series of territorial disputes with its neighbors in the South China Sea, and is locked in a row with Japan in the East China Sea over islands administered by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing.
The US has a security alliance with Japan and Vice President Joe Biden said last month that a strategic shift to Asia would continue.

Meanwhile, Japan's prime minister called on China to scale back its military spending on a day when he compared the mounting tension between Asia's two biggest economies with the rivalry between Britain and Germany before the first world war.
Shinzo Abe used a keynote address to the World Economic Forum in Davos to hail a new dawn for his country and said the fruits of growth in Asia should be used for innovation and investment in human capital rather than weapons.

Earlier, Abe said the frayed relationship between Tokyo and Beijing was similar to the situation in Europe pre-1914. He said a conflict between the two countries would be disastrous, but refused to rule it out. "Trust, not tension, is crucial for peace and prosperity in Asia, and in the rest of the world," he said. "This can only be achieved through dialogue and the rule of law, and not through force or coercion.

Source: News agencies, Edited by website team