US Accuses China of Secret 2020 Nuclear Test in Geneva

In Geneva, United States officials accused China on Monday of conducting a secret nuclear test in 2020 and rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal without transparency, as they pushed for a new arms control agreement that includes Beijing following the recent expiration of the New START treaty between Washington and Moscow.

Speaking at the Conference on Disarmament, Christopher Yeaw, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation, presented declassified intelligence indicating that China detonated a low-yield nuclear device at its Lop Nur test site on June 22, 2020. The event, estimated at a yield of about 10 tonnes, produced seismic activity detected in neighboring Kazakhstan, according to U.S. assessments. Yeaw described China's nuclear buildup as deliberate and opaque, noting that it evaded international monitoring efforts, including those by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, despite Beijing's 1996 moratorium on testing. Under Secretary of State Thomas DiNanno echoed these concerns, stating that Chinese forces had used techniques like decoupling explosions to conceal activities from global verification protocols.