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Journalism of Courage
China has achieved intercontinental missile strike capability from land or from a submarine, enabling it for the first time to target parts of the US from the Chinese coast, a report said on Wednesday. China has had land-based capability for quite some time with the DF-31 missile.
About 10 days ago, it flight-tested a JT-2 missile—a submarine version of the DF-31—and it proved the same capability of hitting a target 6,000 miles away. The successful flight-testing of the submarine-launched missile, US officials said, marks a major advance in Beijing’s long-range nuclear programme.
The test—monitored by American intelligence agencies—‘‘is a significant milestone in their effort to develop strategic weapons,’’ a US official said. The JL-2 intercontinental missile was launched from a Chinese submarine near the Port of Qingdao and tracked to a desert impact point in western China several thousand miles away, the US said. —PTI
