The Washington Times:
China’s People’s Liberation Army has confirmed the latest flight test of the newest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile known as the DF-41.
“It is a normal practice for China to develop missiles as scheduled, and it is not against any specific country, region or target,” Senior Col. Wu Qian, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, said last week. “We always follow our national defense policy, which is defensive in nature, and a military strategy of active defense,” he said. “We develop weapons and armament only to meet our need of national security.”
Col. Wu was responding to the Inside the Ring column of Nov. 22 revealing that the new multi-warhead missile was secretly test-fired two days before President Trump’s visit to China. China has used its missile and aircraft tests in the past to send political messages. An April 12, 2016, test of a DF-41 took place three days before a high-profile voyage by the aircraft carrier USS Stennis in the South China Sea that was visited by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
