China conducted a test of an allegedly nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August that circled the globe before rushing towards its target, revealing its sophisticated space capability that caught US intelligence off guard.

Five sources familiar with the test reported that the Chinese military fired a rocket carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle that traveled through low-orbit space before descending to its target.

According to three persons informed on the intelligence, the missile missed its target by roughly two dozen miles. However, two experts claimed the test demonstrated that China had made incredible progress on hypersonic weapons and was far ahead of US officials.

The test has raised new questions about why the US has consistently miscalculated China's military development efforts, “We have no idea how they did this", said the fourth person. 

The US, Russia, and China are all working on hypersonic weapons, such as glide vehicles that are sent into space on a rocket but orbit the globe on their momentum. They travel at five times the speed of sound, a fraction of the speed of a ballistic missile.

They are, however, agile and do not follow the fixed parabolic trajectory of a ballistic missile, making them more difficult to track. 

Could China "Negate" US Missile Defense Systems?

According to Taylor Fravel, a specialist on Chinese nuclear weapons strategy who was uninformed of the test, a hypersonic glide vehicle loaded with a nuclear payload may allow China to "negate" US missile defense systems designed to destroy incoming ballistic missiles.

“Hypersonic glide vehicles . . . fly at lower trajectories and can maneuver in flight, which makes them hard to track and destroy,” said Fravel, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Fravel noted that if China fully developed and deployed such a weapon, it would be "destabilizing," but he cautioned that a test did not necessarily indicate Beijing would deploy the capabilities.

Tensions between the US and China have escalated as the Biden administration has adopted a firm stance against Beijing.

Moreover, China has refused to engage the US in negotiations about its nuclear arsenal and policies since it is not committed to any arms control agreements.