On Saturday, the Financial Times published a startling account of a new nuclear-capable hypersonic missile fired by China earlier this year that was so advanced that it astounded the U.S. intelligence community. On Monday, the Chinese government insisted that the missile doesn’t exist. The FT’s report stated that the missile circled the globe during a test in August before it slammed down a few miles from its intended target, with one U.S. official commenting to the newspaper: “We have no idea how they did this.” However, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian claimed the reports are mistaken, and the test was nothing but a routine spacecraft check. “This was not a missile, this was a spacecraft,” he said. “This is of great significance for reducing the cost of spacecraft use.” Asked if the FT report was wrong, the spokesman replied: “Yes.” The FT report cited five unnamed sources said to be familiar with the test.
