China confirmed that it will push through with tests for its own anti-missile systems following a recent announcement that South Korea agreed to deploy the United States' Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit.
Tensions are high in the Middle Kingdom after Seoul revealed its decision to allow the U.S. to deploy a THAAD unit that is supposed to detect
Because of this, China decided to prep its own anti-missile system in order to maintain national and regional security in East Asia.
"To develop suitable capabilities for missile defense is necessary for China to maintain its national security. It will improve the self-defense capability of China and is not targeting any specific country and will not affect international strategic stability," Defence Ministry spokesperson Yang Yujun told Reuters.
According to the South China Morning Post, footages of the tests for China's defense equipment that were conducted successfully have been circulated on Monday and Sunday via the China National Radio, CCTV, and the PLA Daily's TV.81.cn website.
Aside from that, an editorial from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Daily posted on Thursday revealed how China would never "swallow insults and submit to humiliation when facing provocations" with additional reference to the Korean War where the Asian giant fought against a U.S.-supported coalition.
"Obviously, China is very unhappy since the US and South Korea started negotiating the deployment of THAAD on the Korean peninsula," explained Antony Wong Dong, a Macau-based military observer.
Such rare videos matched with the strong editorial from the official mouthpiece of country's military force prove that China is ready and up to the challenge should a war be brewing especially now that part of the Korean Peninsula is siding with the world's superpower it intends to unseat.
Even so, some experts still believe that U.S. remains unmatched.
"Compared with the US army, the Chinese anti-missile system lacks real battle testing, raising questions about its maturity and reliability," explained Song Zhongping who served as an instructor for the PLA's former strategic missile force.