The U.S. State Department accused the Chinese government on Friday of conducting a secret nuclear test in 2020, while the Trump administration is seeking to include Beijing in new nuclear arms control agreements.
The new accusation, which Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno told a United Nations Disarmament Conference in Geneva, came the same week as the last remaining U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty expired without an extension. The allegation also underscores the Trump administration’s view that a new nuclear agreement must include Beijing, the rapidly growing nuclear power, for it to be worthwhile.
“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,” DiNanno said, adding that 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 continued, alleging the country conducted a “yield-producing test” on June 22, 2020.
China’s ambassador on disarmament, Shen Jian, did not directly address the allegation, but said the United States “continues in its statement to hype up the so-called China nuclear threat,” and that Beijing “firmly opposes such false narratives.”
Shen also said, “China will not take part in nuclear disarmament negotiations for the time-being.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained in his own statement on the expiration of the U.S.-Russia New START Treaty, which had been in effect since 2011 and was the latest in a string of agreements dating back more than 50 years, why Beijing’s nuclear expansion made it necessary for its inclusion in any future agreements.
“China’s rapid and opaque expansion of its nuclear arsenal since New START entered into force has rendered past models of arms control, based upon bilateral agreements between the United States and Russia, obsolete,” he said. “Since 2020, China has increased its nuclear weapons stockpile from the low 200s to more than 600 and is on pace to have more than 1,000 warheads by 2030. An arms control arrangement that does not account for China’s build-up, which Russia is supporting, will undoubtedly leave the United States and our allies less safe.”
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty limited each country to 1,550 deployed warheads and 700 deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles, among other requirements, such as routine inspections. Russia suspended its participation in the treaty in 2023 after the two sides agreed to a five-year extension in 2021.
The rapid expansion of China’s nuclear arsenal is driving the U.S. insistence on its inclusion in any future agreement; otherwise, the U.S. would be agreeing to restrictions on its nuclear arsenal but not on those of another major nuclear power.
Rubio said the issue of nuclear arms control cannot be a bilateral issue between the U.S. and Russia anymore, and as a result, he is calling for “multilateral nuclear arms control and strategic stability talks.”
US AND RUSSIA AGREE TO RESTART MILITARY COMMUNICATIONS AS NUCLEAR LIMITS TREATY EXPIRES
Meanwhile, U.S., Ukrainian, and Russian officials met in Abu Dhabi earlier this week to discuss trying to broker an end to the war that is coming up on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While both sides said progress had been made, one of the biggest developments was unrelated to the war.
The U.S. and Russia agreed to restart high-level military-to-military communication channels, which had been suspended in the fall of 2021, which the U.S. said is “an important factor in global stability and peace.”
