Hi, I'm Naila Boodoo and welcome to Axios Recap, where we dig into one big story.

It's Tuesday, October 19th, and we're focused on China's missile test.

The recent Financial Times reporting that China launched a possible nuclear-capable hypersonic missile this past summer is complicated.

That's partially because China says it was a routine spacecraft test, but the launch caught U.S. intelligence by surprise.

It's also because tensions between China and the U.S. have continued to

intensify under the Biden administration. The world has seen power struggles between nuclear

powers before, but not between two countries as interconnected as the U.S. and China.

Should we be thinking about this in terms of a new Cold War? In a moment, Axios reporter, Bethany

Allen Ibrahimian, on what this all means for U.S.-China relations. And we're joined now by

Axios's China reporter, Bethany Allen Ibrahimian. Hi, Bethany. Hi, Naila. Can you explain the

context for what we know about what's happening around this missile test?

So this is the latest in a series of pretty significant headlines about the relationship between China and the rest of the world or the U.S. and China.

So a few months ago, satellite images revealed that there are hundreds of new missile silos in western China that have been constructed.

We've also seen a dramatic rise in the number of Chinese bombers and jet fighters that have flown close to Taiwanese airspace.

And we've also seen on the U.S. side, more alliances and

pacts that are being formed with the aim of countering China. So, for example, just recently,

a new pact, a new security pact was announced between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.

And the U.S. actually handed over nuclear submarine technology to

Australia as part of that pact. So this is the environment that we're talking about, some pretty

serious tensions here. Bethany, I think a lot of times when we hear about missile tests,

that's in regards to North Korea. Is it fair to compare

these two countries, North Korea and China? How should we be thinking about that in the context

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