Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to Fiji was officially announced on 3 July 2026. His trip included signing a defence pact with Fiji.
China tested a long-range missile fired from a submarine in the South Pacific on 6 July 2026, which some media and politicians have chosen to call a “Nuclear-Capable” missile test. Notice was given of the test in accordance with international protocols designed to avoid alarm. New Zealand and Australian politicians have complained that the notice was too short.
Some media and politicians have suggested a connection between the missile test and the defence pact between Australia and Fiji. The suggestion implies that the Chinese managed to plan, organize and execute the test all within 3 days of the announcement of the Albanese visit or that the Chinese have submarines armed with these missiles cruising the Pacific so they can be fired whenever some minor nations enter into an insignificant political/defence arrangement which the Chinese disapprove of. Surely, such implications give too much credit to Chinese efficiency or regional hegemony ambitions.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference in Beijing the test was a “routine arrangement” in China’s annual military training programme. “It is consistent with international law and customary international practice and is not directed at any specific country or target,” she said. “The whole process was safe, standard and professional. We hope relevant countries will not read too much into it.”
The latest U.S. long-range missile test in the Pacific occurred on May 20, 2026, when the Air Force Global Strike Command launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. U.S. (ICBM) tests in the Pacific occur roughly three to four times per year. In accordance with American custom and penchant for dramatic nomenclature, their operational test launches are collectively codenamed “Glory Trip”.
The current furore echoes the Australian press’s 2023 distortion of an ASPI scenario into the infamous “Red Alert: Taiwan’s 2026 crunch point” headline—a classic example of the long-running “China threat” propaganda campaign which has polluted the Australian polity to justify the continuation of an unreliable security alliance with an increasingly erratic United States.
John Curr
7 July 2026
The ABC gave blanket coverage of China’s ICBM test in the Pacific .
However, ABC News Australia did not cover the 20 May 2026 U.S. nuclear capable icbm test into the Pacific. It devoted significant coverage to the Chinese missile test in July 2026. The US has dropped over 45 ICBMs into the Pacific. China has only fired two (2) in its entire history. Where is the ‘balanced’ reporting from the ABC?
The US has over 40 major military installations across the Pacific region plus over 70 in Japan and eight major bases in Korea. The US has a major base at Pine Gap in Australia that monitors the entire globe for missiles fired . In recent years the United States has fired missiles at both both Yemen and Iran. Earlier this year the United States fired a missile at Minab school, killing 168 pupils.
China has zero formal military bases in the Pacific and has never fired a missile at other countries let alone causing the slaughter and mayhem that the United States routinely performs in the Middle East helping the apartheid state of Israel to conduct genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.
What is the point of electoral democracy when the people are deliberately misinformed?
Ian Curr
7 July 2026
https://youtu.be/SwfrrUBvx6s?si=Qphb7J0oTtFK2zi5