China reveals secretive HQ-19 ABM
In an unprecedented move, China revealed its HQ-19 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) in footage aired on China Central Television (CCTV) on 24 July.
This is the first time Beijing has acknowledged this secretive programme.
On the following day, the PLA Daily’s official TV.81.cn website reported China had so far completed four successful ground-based midcourse tests from its Korla Missile Test Complex in Xinjiang.
CCTV’s timing was certainly no accident, for it came in the wake of a joint US-South Korea decision announced on 7 July that the US Army would deploy its Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system
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