China is leading the world in the hypersonic weapons race. And it’s just given us a horrifying glimpse of the new missiles it plans to arm itself with.

The four-minute video, posted on Chinese social media, doesn’t attempt to disguise the fact that it is propaganda. It’s hyped even more than the usual defence industrial promotional productions.

But amid the array of new submarines, warships and bombers is a brief glimpse of what Beijing hopes is a game-changing technology.

Blindingly fast. Pin-point precise. Unstoppable.

The computer-generated ballistic missile is dubbed the Dongfeng-17.

It’s carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV).

And this is supposed to be able to weave its way through a nation’s defences at speeds of up to 12,000km/h.

‘FLYING DEATH SENTENCE’

Featuring the weapon in social media footage released by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) was no accident.

CASC is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. And it’s the tightly regulated manufacturer of most of the nation’s ballistic missiles.

The glitzy animation — which showed the weapon carving its way through enemy ships, submarines and an underground command centre — had a specific social media target: The Communist Youth League of China. It oozed patriotism. But it was also the first time the missile manufacturer had publicly released its vision of a boost-glide weapon.

“It will … fly over the upper edge of the atmosphere, changing directions frequently, which makes it very difficult to intercept by antimissile systems,” Beijing-approved military analyst Wei Dongzu told the state-run Global Times.

These winged warheads, possibly with their own internal propulsion, are carried to the edge of space by a ballistic missile booster. Its nose-cone falls away to release one or more glide vehicles, which then dive back down — reaching incredible speeds in the process.

What sets them apart from the nuclear warhead carrying re-entry vehicles of the Cold War era is that they can change directions. They also can carry conventional explosives.

But how panicked politicians and military commanders at the receiving end of such a missile could tell the difference remains unknown. The use of such a hypersonic delivery vehicle could unintentionally trigger a retaliatory nuclear strike.

ARMS RACE ACCELERATES

The potential is tempting.

Obliterate a 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the blink of an eye?

Decapitate the leadership of an opposing nation before it even realised it was being targeted?

Bust the deepest, most secret bunkers?

Russia the United States — even Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group — also see the military appeal of hypersonics.

President Vladimir Putin has frequently been boasting about his new “Avangard” glide vehicle and “Kinzhal” aircraft-carried ship killer.

The US, which appears to have fallen behind in this new arms race, is now throwing cash at obtaining the technology. Billions of dollars are being poured into Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing in an effort to get these weapons airborne.

The US is also developing a network of satellites to operate in low-earth orbit. Its mission is to detect and track ICBM launches and incoming hypersonic missiles. It’s also supposed to be able to guide America’s own versions of these weapons to their targets.

Tantalisingly, Pentagon Adviser Michael Griffin recently said the satellites would have “a war-fighting capability, should it come to that.”

‘THOSE WHO RESIST WILL PERISH’

Beijing’s military elite is becoming increasingly confident that it has successfully leapfrogged Western military technology. It has, after all, test-launched its hypersonic weapon at least twice now.

“No (military or diplomatic) strategy should go against the times,” Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang declared in response to the recently-released Pentagon Indo-Pacific Strategy Report.

“The trend of the world is mighty and overwhelming. Those who follow it will prosper while those who resist will perish. Peace, development and win-win co-operation are the trends of our times. Any strategy that is closed and exclusive, which is against the general trends, is doomed to failure.”

And the usually circumspect People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force has even begun to joke about its new-found power.

It quipped on pictures posted to social media site Weibo that the bright plume blasted into the sky by one of its recent tests above the Bohai Sea was a “UFO”. “Do you believe there are UFOs in this world?” it asked.

The PLA didn’t say what it was. But the sight coincided with what military analysts said were tests of a new submarine-carried ballistic missile.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer. Continue the conversation @JamieSeidel