Chinese Foreign Ministry has denied the Financial Times report that said China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August.

Financial Times had first broken out the news of a hypersonic test missile by China in August, saying the missile turned out to be more capable than what the United States Intelligence had expected.

FT had said that the technical capabilities of the missile were far greater than what the US had realized however the missile missed the target by about two miles.

However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijan denied the claim on Monday and said that it had instead been a “routine test of [a] space vehicle to verify [the] technology of [the] spacecraft’s reusability.” 

He said that the hypersonic missile testing happened in July instead of August.

"The timing isn't surprising at all," said Tong Zhao, a nuclear policy expert at Beijing's Carnegie–Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, adding that "even if this reported launch was a weapons test, it may be a long way from being an operational capability."