That morning a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine, sailing in the Pacific, test-launched a missile which in more fractious times could be nuclear capable.
This time it was capped with a harmless dummy warhead, and it soared over the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru before landing in waters somewhere near Tuvalu and Kiribati.
China was not acting outside of international law; many nations, including several New Zealand counts as a friend, regularly conduct similar tests.
New Zealand was informed in advance of the test, but Mr Peters emphatically stated that it was ‘‘not consistent with regional stability, and peace in the South Pacific’’.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was in lockstep with his Foreign Minister, later saying that the test was unacceptable and that New Zealand had expressed its concerns directly to the Chinese government.
‘‘We are living in a region that is proudly nuclear free . . . we don’t want to see increasing militarisation in our region,’’ Mr Luxon said.
China did not conduct this test — its second in the Pacific Ocean region in the past two years — at random. It is almost certain that it was trying to send a message to someone, and it was immediately thought that the recipients were intended to be Australia and its South Pacific neighbours.
The test coincided with a visit to the Pacific by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to sign a series of defence agreements, and on the day in question he was due to put his signature on a pact with Fiji.
China has had an active diplomatic presence in the region for several years and treaties such as those Mr Albanese has been advancing are part of Australia’s response to that. New Zealand has similarly stepped up its dealings with our neighbours.
However, other commentators have speculated that the actual country being sent this unpleasant airmail message was the United States. Purportedly the People’s Republic was telling the US that its nuclear deterrent, which was presumed to be land-based, either does now or could have, a global reach thanks to the Chinese fleet.
Quite what China’s intention was matters less to New Zealand — this country has already had a more direct message from China in February 2025 when warships conducted a live firing exercise in the Tasman Sea — but the ramifications from the action do.
China is a major trading partner which New Zealand can ill afford to annoy — but then so are both the United States and Australia.
Framing an appropriately nuanced response was essential, and Mr Luxon and Mr Peters — who at times have seemingly been reading from different scripts on foreign policy — were both on message this time.
The launch also adds heft to the government’s case for greater defence spending, which it put into gear as part of Budget 2026.
The country is far from needing to place an iron dome over its skies, but it is a reminder that we are not immune from distant threat.
That threat will now seem much more real to our regional neighbours, some of whom are still dealing with the legacy of actual nuclear testing as opposed to testing nuclear potential.
Several have welcomed the fillip that Chinese investment has brought to their small economies, but they will be less sanguine about Chinese missiles in the skies above their territory.
Mr Albanese’s second stop, the Solomon Islands, was another country far from pleased by the development.
Speaking as the current chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, its Prime Minister Matthew Wale described the test as ‘‘not something a friend does’’ and called for an end to testing by any nation in the Pacific.
That may the legacy of this incident; that China, in looking at a wider perspective, ignored the smaller details behind it.
