US accuses China of secret nuclear test

The United States accused China on February 6 of carrying out a covert nuclear weapons test in 2020, escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing as the U.S. called for a new, expanded arms control treaty that would include China alongside Russia.

The allegation was made at a global disarmament conference in Geneva, just one day after the expiration of the last treaty limiting U.S. and Russian missile and warhead deployments, underscoring growing uncertainty around the future of nuclear arms control, Reuters reports. 

"I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons," U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno told a Disarmament Conference in Geneva.

According to DiNanno, the Chinese military deliberately attempted to conceal the alleged tests.

The Chinese military "sought to conceal testing by obfuscating the nuclear explosions because it recognized these tests violate test ban commitments. China has used 'decoupling', a method to decrease the effectiveness of seismic monitoring, to hide their activities from the world," he said.

DiNanno added that China conducted one such "yield-producing test" on June 22, 2020.

The remarks come months after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the military in October to immediately resume preparations for nuclear weapons testing, arguing that other countries were doing so without providing details or naming specific nations.

China rejected the U.S. accusations. Speaking at the same conference, China’s ambassador on disarmament, Shen Jian, did not directly address the claim of a secret test but defended Beijing’s nuclear posture.

"China notes that the U.S. continues in its statement to hype up the so-called China nuclear threat. China firmly opposes such false narratives," he said. "It [the U.S.] is the culprit for the aggravation of the arms race."

By Sabina Mammadli