2026-02-08 19:40
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2026-02-08 19:40
The United States on Friday accused China of conducting a secret nuclear test in 2020. During the international disarmament conference in Vienna, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno announced this.
“Today I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has tested nuclear weapons, including preparing for tests with a declared power of hundreds of tons,” DiNanno said on Friday. He added that the test explosion took place on June 22, 2020 and had a force of several hundred tons; However, he did not provide a specific number.
DiNanno said that in order to conceal the attempt, Beijing used so-called splitting, a method of digging a large cave to reduce the seismic activity caused by the explosion, making it more difficult to detect. According to the US side, Beijing was aware that the tests violated China's obligations to ban test explosions.
The US allegations were not confirmed by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Its executive secretary, Rob Floyd, said on Friday that on June 22, 2020, CTBTO systems “did not detect any event consistent with the characteristics of a nuclear test explosion.” He added that nothing had changed in this matter later, after more detailed analyses.
Floyd explained that the International Monitoring System used by the CTBTO “is capable of detecting nuclear test explosions with a force equal to or greater than approximately 500 tons of TNT.” He stressed that the system recorded “all six tests conducted and declared” by North Korea.
CNN quotes Arms Control Association executive director Daryl Kimball as saying that CTBTO monitoring stations could have missed the test explosion provided it was a “very, very low-magnitude explosion.”
Asked to comment on the matter, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said that the authorities in Beijing “are guided by a 'no-first-to-use nuclear weapons' policy and a nuclear strategy focused on self-defense, as well as observing a moratorium on nuclear tests.”
He also assured that China is ready to cooperate with all parties to “jointly defend the authority of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and protect the international order on nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.” (PAP)
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