When China launched a ballistic missile into the South Pacific Ocean on Monday, it was a rare test of a nuclear-capable weapons system that drew international rebuke.
Arriving two years after a similar missile launch in international waters in the Pacific, the test by the People's Liberation Army caught the attention of small island nations whose leaders have increasingly urged bigger countries to stop using the vast oceanic region for power struggles. But Beijing's message was largely for just one country, experts say: the United States.
