My comment:
(a) Obviously China wants the world to know about the repor, which was first published in an obscure Chinese-language newspaper.
Chao Lei, Submarine crew submerge selves for greater good. China Daily, Jan 29, 2011.
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-01/29/content_11938048.htm
Quote:
"Changcheng 200, or Great Wall 200, reportedly entered service in September 1964 and later conducted test launches for sea-based missiles. The submarine belongs to the North Sea Fleet.
"On Oct 12, 1982, the submarine conducted China's first underwater test launch for a carrier rocket, which was interpreted by many foreign military analysts as showing China's capability to launch a sea-based nuclear counterattack.
"But the name Changcheng 200 never appeared in the media until Aug 4, 2010, when Chinese President Hu Jintao, also the Central Military Commission chairman, signed an order to award it the honorary title 'Vanguard Submarine of Underwater Test Launches.'
(b) Peking Fires Its First Submarine-Launched Missile. Reuters, Oct 17, 1982.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/17/world/peking-fires-its-first-submarine-launched-missle.html
(abstract; citing Xinhua)
(c) Though the name of the test-launch submarine was unknown abroad until 2010, it is well known that it was/is Golf-class.
"Although the Soviets provided a Golf-class ballistic-missile submarine, the missile it fired was a navalized Scud: the Chinese had to develop their own technology for a naval IRBM. The missile's solid-fuel motor was first tested in 1978, it was fired from a pontoon on April 30, 1982, and the Golf-class test submarine first fired it submerged on October 12, 1982, to a range of 1,600 km. JL-1 was first fired by the Xia-class submarine during July 1988."
Norman Friedman, The Naval Institute guide to world naval weapon systems. Naval Institute Press (5th ed, 2006), at page 504.
http://books.google.com/books?id=4S3h8j_NEmkC&pg=PA504&lpg=PA504&dq=china+submarine+launched+missile+1982&source=bl&ots=hH_wLQV1aV&sig=kRK4HWLS2IEUxioXW_mMqXxUmxU&hl=en&ei=5UhETd6SGcK88gbn_dSZAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=china%20submarine%20launched%20missile%201982&f=false
(d) Maybe China's efforts to launch missiles underwater is all for naught.
"China’s nuclear arsenal currently consists of * * * JL-1 submarinelaunched ballistic missiles (SLBM) for the XIA-class SSBN, although the operational status of the XIA-class SSBN/JL-1 combination remains questionable."
ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS: Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2010. US Department of Defense, Aug. 17, 2010, at page 34.
http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/2010_CMPR_Final.pdf
(e) It is fair to say that without a submarine as a platform, JL-1 has not been test-fired since late 1988. Put this way, China does NOT have
(i) a submarine capable successfully shooting a missile UNDERWATER,
(ii) or a submarine-launched missile.